Island Sotheby’s International Realty
Member Spotlight: Marilyn Griffin
If there’s a common thread in Marilyn Griffin’s life, it is her unwavering care for others—family, patients, real estate clients, community members, and strangers halfway across the world.
Marilyn, ABR, SFR, with Island Sotheby’s International Realty on Maui, started her career as an ER nurse in Sacramento, CA. When she and her former husband divorced, she and her three children (now 44, 42, and 41) relocated to their Maui vacation home year-round.
On Maui, Marilyn continued to work as a nurse, but in 1999, she took a real estate course with the late Carol Ball to learn about investing. With some encouragement from Carol, Marilyn decided to pursue a career in real estate.
These days, she mainly works as a real estate broker, although she maintains her RN license and during COVID worked full-time in the office of her husband of 27 years (a doctor of internal medicine she met while working at Maui Memorial Medical Center).
When possible, Marilyn puts her nursing skills to work as a volunteer. In 2013, she accompanied a cousin and their California-based Rotary Club to India to provide polio immunizations, an experience she describes as “life-changing.”
Her selfless efforts extend to more than the proverbial “shirt off her back” – Marilyn donated one of her kidneys, an experience she said she’d repeat 10 times if she had 10 more to share.
On Maui, Marilyn is deeply engaged in community, including as Vice President of the Hospice Maui Board of Directors and a member of the Maluhia Maui Rotary Club. She is active with the nonprofit REALTORS® Association of Maui Community Foundation’s Wishing Well...for Maui Students.
As president of the REALTORS® Association of Maui, she spearheaded an effort that provided CPR training equipment to all Maui County public schools and private schools on Maui Island, and she has served on numerous committees and task forces within her REALTOR® community. She is currently awaiting her GREEN Designation through the National Association of REALTORS® and is a Hawai‘i REALTORS® Leadership Academy (HARLA) Trustee.
“Volunteering is the bomb,” she said. “It feeds you by making you feel gratitude. As REALTORS®, we have an opportunity. It feels great to help where it’s needed, no matter how big or small or how often.”
Beyond her other endeavors, Marilyn and her husband revel in their children and grandchildren, most of whom live off island. Recently, they hosted a birdhouse painting contest with their twin 10-year-old grandchildren, who live closest—right next door.
Inclusion in Member Spotlight does not imply endorsement, recommendation, or guarantee by Hawaiʻi REALTORS® of any individual member, business, or services.
