Havre print shop ends five-decade run

A Havre businessman this month ended five decades of local printing. Jim Griggs said he has closed the doors to Griggs Printing and Publishing.

Griggs said that at 11:25 a.m. Jan. 2 he had turned the key for the last time.

He said he and his wife, Bonita, sold the building in 2013 to the H. Earl and Margaret Turner Clack Memorial Museum Foundation as the future home of the H. Earl Clack Memorial Museum, with the provision he had up to 10 years in which he could keep operating his business there.

"Happiest day was when I bought that building, my worst day was when I sold it to them and the next-worst day was when I turned the key the other day," Griggs said.

Griggs Printing and Publishing started in Havre in the Liberty Hotel building 42 years ago. He purchased the Anderson Wholesale Building on the 10 Block of Fifth Avenue in 1988.

He sold the building to the museum funding foundation, Griggs said, because if anything was to ever happen to him he would not want to have his wife worrying about having to care for the building and that she would be financially secure.

Bonita Griggs died Sept. 1, and Jim Griggs decided to retire and turn the building completely over to the museum board.

"It will probably work for (the museum) down there," he said.

Griggs said that there are a few things with the building that after 30 years he just knows, and there are some things that after owning it and operating out of it they will have to figure out.

"Oh, she has got a life of her own," he said.

He said he would like to remember his business as a part of Havre's history.

"We weren't the biggest business in town," Griggs said, "but we tried to be involved as much as we could and support the various things that were going on."

The history of Griggs

He first got his start working as a printer's devil, Griggs said, doing odd tasks and learning the tricks of the trade, 61 years ago in Conrad.

When he started, it was with linotype, he said, with hot lead holding the keys together, adding that he also had to learn the California-type keys. Griggs said as a printer's devil he had to put the type keys away and learned quick that he better put them in the right slots.

He said he used to pour about 2,000 pounds of linotype metal a week.

Griggs also used to work at - and eventually owning, the newspaper in Browning before coming to Havre, he said.

He said he sold his newspaper business because he wanted to make something that lived, working with the people of the community and having the challenge of building something that lasted. Griggs added that in the newspaper business he could print something one day and, after it was printed it was on to the next day. He said when people print a brochure, business card, or thing of that nature, it lives, it travels, goes places and can exchange hands for years.

"I wanted something that stays alive longer than a day," he said.

Griggs attended linotype school in  New York City, he said, although shortly after, the industry moved to flexography, before evolving to computer graphics.

"I've seen the whole system evolve," Griggs said.

He said he purchased the Anderson Wholesale building at a great price in 1988 from Joe Anderson after 12 years of working out of the Liberty Hotel, adding that when he bought the Anderson Wholesale had been sitting empty for at least seven years.

He said that his print shop never took up the entire building, just the majority of the main floor space, but he would still utilize the entire building. The other floors were rented out, Griggs said, as either cold storage space or to other companies, such as Hewitt Paint or Northern Electronics, renting the space from him for a period of time.

He added that he never made any large amount of money off these rentals but just enough to keep the building operational.

Growing in Havre

In Havre, Griggs said, his printing business grew. He said Griggs Printing printed for the Democratic and Republican parties statewide, which was challenging, adding that some weeks he would work seven 16-hour days. He added that he still enjoyed the work, though.

One of his personal favorite times, and one of the most exciting times for the business, he said, was in 1991. When the Gulf War began, Griggs said, he remembers watching TV and seeing riots breaking out, reminding him of the Vietnam era. He said he quickly had an idea and called the Veterans of Foreign Wars and asked permission to print Mother Stars, which he started printing the moment they told him he could.

He said they were giving them away to people.

"All I wanted was for people to take a star because there were kids that I had in Boy Scouts that were over there. I had a brother-in-law over there and I knew a lot of kids that went over there," Griggs said. "Just support the troops. ... Whether we were there right or wrong, all I wanted was support for the troops."

Griggs said that two months after they began printing the Mother Stars they had distributed about 134,000, sending them across the country and even over to the troops in Saudi Arabia. People called from all over the country asking for stars, he said, adding that they even wound up on the national evening news because of it.

When it ended, Griggs said, some veterans who came home stopped inside of his shop and gave him hats from their unit or branch and told him, "Thanks for the support."

Even some of the parents of veterans who were passing trough Havre, he said, would stop in just to say, "Hi."

"It was quite impressive," Griggs said.

He added that they didn't make any money off of the Mother Stars.

Griggs said that his print shop was special, the most unique part being their design department and the service to their customers.

"Service was our biggest thing," he said. "... You only have one thing to offer. Everybody can have a press, but if you don't give the service, they are not coming back."

He added that another unique thing about Griggs was that Griggs and Hill County Printing were the only two print shops that still used ink presses from Cut Bank to the North Dakota border. Most of the other shops in the industry converted to computers.

The next step

At the end, Griggs said, it was only him and one of his daughters working in Griggs Printing and Publishing, adding that since they have closed he has 30 years of equipment and other things to go through.

He said he is 75 years old, but he still wants to go out and be active.

He added that he is also looking forward to being able to visit people if he wanted, such as his 13 grandchildren. Griggs said he wants to remain active in the community and will continue with the Black Powder Club and volunteering at the First Lutheran Church running the lutefisk dinner.

Griggs said he does have an interest in woodworking.

"I'd like to do that," he said. "I start projects and then I don't get quite done, but maybe I'll finish a few now."