Former Marysville Municipal Court Judge Michael Grigsby, 73, has died.
Lance Emberling with the Union County Coroner’s Office confirmed that at about 2:24 p.m., medics were called to Grigsby’s home on Hickory Drive.
Grigsby’s brother went to the home. When the brother arrived, he found Grigsby dead.
Medics called the coroner’s office.
The coroner’s office investigates nearly every unattended death. Elizabeth Kolbe, an investigator with the coroner’s office said she contacted Grigsby’s health care providers and investigated the death.
“There was nothing nefarious going on,” Kolbe said. “He just passed away. It was natural causes.”
Kolbe explained that Grigsby was last seen alive Jan. 12 by his brother.
Officials do not have an exact time of death, but the week of Jan. 12 is “around the time frame we are looking at.”
In July 2021, Grigsby retired as Municipal Court Judge, a post he held since 1999. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine appointed Robert Parrott to fill the remaining two years of Grigsby’s term. Last year, Parrott was elected to the post.
Grigsby, a lifelong resident of Union County, was the son of Joseph B. Grigsby, former judge of Union County Common Pleas Court. He formed Parrott & Grigsby law firm with Richard Parrott in 1981, and it continued until 1985 when Grigsby left to begin his own practice.
Grigsby served on Marysville City Council as councilman-at-large from 1981 to 1985 and was president of council from 1982 through 1984. He went on to become Marysville’s law director and municipal court prosecutor from Jan. 1, 1986 to Dec. 31, 1999.
In November 1999, Grigsby was appointed to serve as judge of the Marysville Municipal Court and was re-elected in November 2005, November 2011 and November 2017.
Grigsby was a member of the Ohio Municipal and County Court Judges Association. He belonged to the Ohio and Union County Bar Associations and was admitted to practice before the United States and Ohio supreme courts and the United States district courts for the northern and southern districts of Ohio.
He also served as a trustee of the Union County Board of the American Red Cross and the Union County Chamber of Commerce’s Community Improvement Corporation, an alternate member of the Logan-Union-Champaign Planning Commission and secretary of the Marysville Evening Lions.
Grigsby was an associate member of the Union County Township Clerks and Trustees Association and belonged to several lodges and fraternal organizations.