SDSU Accountancy Grad is a Special Kind of Father to 23 Children

Griffin earned his accounting degree in 1990. He's shown here with his adopted son, Zachary.

Dale Griffin is in the unique position of being able to say that he has been a father to 23 children, all under the age of five. 

Since 2008, he and his wife, Ana, have been foster parents to 23 children, the majority of whom have been impacted by drugs and/or alcohol in utero. “Two of our babies were born heroin addicted and had to be given methadone,” said Griffin, who earned his degree in accountancy from the Charles W. Lamden School of Accountancy at SDSU’s Fowler College of Business. “One little girl was so impacted with drugs and alcohol that she developed cerebral palsy.” 

Being a father, let alone a father to 23 special needs children, was the furthest thing from Griffin’s mind when he graduated from SDSU in 1990. “I graduated from high school 13 years earlier,” he said. “I started out at UCSD right after high school as a physics major, but I left before I got my degree go to work. In each job, I was always interested in the money aspect of the business, so I decided to go back to school to get my degree in accounting.”

After completing his associate’s degree in accounting at San Diego Mesa College, he chose to earn his bachelor’s degree at SDSU’s Fowler College of Business because he “already had a full-time job and SDSU made it easy to take classes that fit my schedule. Also, accounting is SDSU’s specialty!”

In April of 1993, Griffin took a position in the contracts division of the San Diego Sheriff’s Department. “I started off in a position a little below my skill set,” he recalled, “but I wanted to get my foot in the door with a stable organization since I was about to get married and I wanted to buy a house.”

One of the things Griffin learned at SDSU was how to manage cost accounting, which was a skill that helped him move up the ladder within the department. By the time he retired in February of 2019, he held the position of senior accountant. At that time, he and his wife had been foster parents for 11 years.

Going Through the Process

Dale Griffin has helped to raise 23 children, all under the age of five.

The idea of being a foster parent started long before the first child was placed with the couple. “We wanted to find a way to give back to the community and my wife brought up the idea of being foster parents a few times, but we never followed through,” said Griffin. “In 2007, Ana was listening to Jeff and Jer on the radio and she heard about Angels Foster Family Network which is a contractor with San Diego County. We went through all the background checks, the psychological tests, the home inspections and training classes before we were licensed foster care providers in early 2008. We got our first baby that April.”

After their first placement, twenty-two infants and toddlers in need of immediate care were placed with the Griffins in quick succession. While most of the little ones have been reunited with their birth families, the 13th child the Griffins took in, Zachary, was adopted by the couple when the county was unable to find a family member who could offer him a suitable home environment. Zachary had already spent nearly all of his young life with Dale and Ana, so when the offer to adopt him came “we just rolled right on over with it,” said Griffin. “And we still keep in touch with several of the families and children that we’ve had over the years. In fact, our first placement continues to come over for visits and he’s 12 now. We still take him on vacations with us.”

Besides Zachary, the Griffins currently have one child who is in foster care with them, but there could be more coming to them at any time. While the classes he took at SDSU on culture and anthropology have made a lasting impact on Griffin, so too, have the lessons learned in his accounting classes, both on a professional level and a personal level. “As a foster parent, budgeting and tracking expenses is important,” he noted.

Reconnecting Families While Encouraging Education

While maintaining a good accounting system is one of the keys to being a successful foster parent, Griffin said that the ability to work with the biological families of the children is also an important element in allowing them to regain custody, which most eventually will do.

Griffin says that one of the best ways for families with children in the foster care system to rise above their challenging set of circumstances is through education. “We always encourage families to seek education for the older siblings of our babies to help them break the cycle and get out of the system,” he explained. “Getting an education is one of the best ways to do this.”