Frederick J. Griffiths was an early, English-born

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 engineer in the Stark County, Ohio

Stark County, Ohio

Stark County is a county located in the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2010 census, the population was 375,586. It is included in the Canton-Massillon, Ohio Metropolitan Statistical Area....

 steel industry. He is best known for working with Henry Ford

Henry Ford

Henry Ford was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry...

 to develop a vanadium

Vanadium

Vanadium is a chemical element with the symbol V and atomic number 23. It is a hard, silvery gray, ductile and malleable transition metal. The formation of an oxide layer stabilizes the metal against oxidation. The element is found only in chemically combined form in nature...

 alloy steel in order to produce lighter-weight, stronger automobiles. When the Massillon Rolling Mill Company merged into the Central Steel Company in June 1914, Griffiths resigned as a chemist at Canton’s United Steel Company to become Central's vice president and superintendent. He then became the president of the company. His daughter, Gertrude, lit the first open hearth furnace at the new Central Steel Company in 1915. In 1917, Griffith's was named to the Massillon Steel Casting Company board of directors. The company's earliest orders came from the United States military for production of the steel-rated equipment and supplies needed for World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. By 1919, 3 of his 5 brothers were all superintendents at Central Steel.

In 1920, Griffiths was anticipated by many in Massillon, Ohio

Massillon, Ohio

Massillon is a city located in Stark County in the U.S. state of Ohio, approximately 8 miles to the west of Canton, Ohio, 20 miles south of Akron, Ohio, and 50 miles south of Cleveland, Ohio. The population was 32,149 at the 2010 census....

 to purchase the Massillon Tigers

Massillon Tigers

The Massillon Tigers were an early professional football team from Massillon, Ohio. Playing in the "Ohio League", the team was a rival to the pre-National Football League version of the Canton Bulldogs. The Tigers won Ohio League championships in 1903, 1904, 1905, and 1906, then merged to become...

, of the Ohio League

Ohio League

The Ohio League was an informal and loose association of American football clubs active between 1903 and 1919 that competed for the Ohio Independent Championship . As the name implied, its teams were based in Ohio...

 and take the team into the new National Football League

National Football League

The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...

. However he never attended a meeting regarding the league or club and the Tigers soon folded.

When Central Steel became part of Central Alloy Steel Company, Griffiths was became chairman of its board of trustees. However when that firm was absorbed by the Republic Steel Corporation, he was assigned the presidency of the Republic Research Corporation. Not wanting to conduct research, Griffth's left Republic to join the Timken Company.