Chef and cartoonist Phil “Bunk” Griffin has passed away.
Philip M. (Bunk) Griffin
June 17, 1940 – October 16, 2024
A lifelong resident of [Saranac Lake], he was by professional cook, having worked in The Dew Drop Inn, Tyson’s, The Mar-Mac, and finished out his career at the Adirondack Medical Center, where he was head chef for 48 years, plus change. He was also a loyal member of the Elks Club and our 2019 Winter Carnival King.
Bunk had more facets than the Koh-i-Noor Diamond, perhaps foremost among them was his being an obsessive collector of Saranac Lake facts, lore, legends, and out-and-out lies. Thus unofficially he was our town historian.
Any mention of Bunk would be incomplete without mentioning his alter ego, Mountain Al, an odd little hermit who was a tribute to Bunk’s skills as a cartoonist. For years Mountain Al graced the pages of The Adirondack Daily Enterprise. He also was featured on T-shirts, the most notorious being his 1980 Olympics Edition.
Since Lake Placid could not have handled all the car traffic of spectators and workers, the Olympic hierarchy wisely decided to have them park in designated towns outside Lake Placid and be ferried back and forth by vans. To commemorate this enlightened planning, Bunk had T-shirts made showing Mountain Al, above which was the legend, “Welcome to Saranac Lake, Parking Lot of the 1980 Olympics.” For some unknown reason, everyone was not amused, and he soon received a sharply-worded cease and desist order.
Years later, he was asked if he complied with the order. “Of course I did,” he said, “…right after I sold the last one.”
From The Adirondack Daily Enterprise obit:
Griffin, better known as Bunk, was an unofficial town historian of sorts for his hometown, and shared the photos, stories and memories he collected through his website bunksplace.com. His family and friends describe him as a quiet, creative, passionate, witty and sentimental guy.
His Mountain Al cartoons, which centered around a bearded man of the woods and lampooned local issues with an absurdist and light tone, were published in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise and the Lake Placid News for years.
During the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid he designed Mountain Al t-shirts which read “Welcome to Saranac Lake, Parking Lot of the 1980 Olympics,” a stunt he said earned him a cease and desist letter from the IOC, which he obeyed after he sold off his merch.
Phil Griffin’s website Bunk’s Place, available only through the Wayback Machine now, has some Mountain Al cartoons archived annotated for us outsiders explaining the more local issues as well as more Lake Saranac history.
