Philip Leslie Graham (July 18, 1915 – August 3, 1963) was an American newspaperman. He served as publisher and later co-owner of ''
The Washington Post'' and its parent company,
The Washington Post Company.
During his years with the Post Company, Graham helped ''The Washington Post'' grow from a struggling local paper to a national publication and the Post Company expand to own other newspapers as well as radio and television stations. He was married to
Katharine Graham
Katharine Meyer Graham (June 16, 1917 – July 17, 2001) was an American newspaper publisher. She led her family's newspaper, '' The Washington Post'', from 1963 to 1991. Graham presided over the paper as it reported on the Watergate scandal, w ...
, a daughter of
Eugene Meyer, the previous owner of ''The Washington Post''.
Graham, who had
bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder, previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally elevated mood that last from days to weeks each. If the elevated mood is severe or associated with ...
, died by suicide in 1963, after which Katharine took over as publisher, making her one of the first women in charge of a major American newspaper.
Early life
Graham was born to a
Lutheran family in
Terry, South Dakota. He was raised in
Miami where his father,
Ernest R. ("Cap") Graham, made a career in farming and real estate, and was elected to the
State Senate
A state legislature in the United States is the legislative body of any of the 50 U.S. states. The formal name varies from state to state. In 27 states, the legislature is simply called the ''Legislature'' or the ''State Legislature'', whil ...
. His mother, the former Florence Morris, had been a schoolteacher in the
Black Hills
The Black Hills ( lkt, Ȟe Sápa; chy, Moʼȯhta-voʼhonáaeva; hid, awaxaawi shiibisha) is an isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, United States. Black Elk ...
of South Dakota. Graham was one of four children. One half brother,
Bob Graham
Daniel Robert "Bob" Graham (born November 9, 1936) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 38th governor of Florida from 1979 to 1987 and a United States senator from Florida from 1987 to 2005. He is a member of the Dem ...
, is a former governor of the state of
Florida (1979–1987) and a former
United States Senator representing Florida from 1987 to 2005.
Graham attended
Miami High School and graduated from the
University of Florida in 1936, with a
Bachelor of Arts degree in economics, and from
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States.
Each class i ...
, where he was editor of the ''
Harvard Law Review'' and earned a ''
magna cum laude
Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...
'' degree, in 1939. Graham was a member of both
Florida Blue Key and
Sigma Alpha Epsilon (Florida Upsilon chapter) and was both a fraternity brother and roommate of the late Senator
George A. Smathers whom he had been close to since attending Miami High School with Smathers. In 1939–1940 he was law clerk to
United States Supreme Court Justice
Stanley F. Reed, and the following year he was clerk to Justice
Felix Frankfurter, who had been one of his professors at Harvard.
Marriage and children
On June 5, 1940, he married
Katharine Meyer, a daughter of
Eugene Meyer, a multi-millionaire and the owner of ''The Washington Post'', then a struggling newspaper. The couple settled down in a two-story row house.
During
World War II, Graham enlisted in the
United States Army Air Corps as a private in 1942 and rose to the rank of major by war's end. His wife followed him on military assignments to
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Sioux Falls () is the List of cities in South Dakota, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Dakota and the List of United States cities by population, 130th-most populous city in the United States. It is the county seat of Minnehaha Count ...
and
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania up until 1945, when he went to the
Pacific theater as an intelligence officer of the
Far East Air Force, which was created in August 1944.
Their first baby died at birth. Four children followed:
Elizabeth ('Lally') Morris Graham, now Weymouth (born July 3, 1943),
Donald Edward Graham (born April 22, 1945), William Welsh Graham (1948–2017), and Stephen Meyer Graham (born 1952).
Career at The Washington Post Company
In 1946, when ''Washington Post'' publisher
Eugene Meyer was named the first president of the
World Bank, he passed the position of publisher to Graham. When Meyer left the World Bank later that year, he took the title of chairman of the board of the
Washington Post Company
Graham Holdings Company (formerly The Washington Post Company) is a diversified American conglomerate holding company. Headquartered in Arlington County, Virginia, and incorporated in Delaware, it was formerly the owner of ''The Washington Pos ...
, leaving Graham as publisher.
In 1948, Meyer transferred his actual control of the Post Company stock (the company was privately owned) to his daughter and her husband. Katharine Graham received 30 percent as a gift. Phil received 70 percent of the stock, his purchase financed by his father-in-law. Meyer remained a close adviser to his son-in-law until his death in 1959, at which time Graham assumed the titles of President and Chairman of the Board of the Post company.
Leadership of company under Graham
* In 1949, the Post Company purchased a controlling ownership interest in Washington radio station
WTOP, jointly owned with
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
. This marked the beginnings of the Post Company's involvement in broadcasting. The following year the ''Post''/CBS joint venture bought the CBS-affiliated television station in Washington, and changed the call letters to
WTOP-TV (later WDVM-TV, and now WUSA-TV), and in 1953 the company bought
WMBR radio and
WMBR-TV (now WJXT) in
Jacksonville, Florida. The company gained full ownership of the WTOP stations in 1954.
* In 1954, the Post Company bought the competing morning newspaper, the ''Times-Herald'', for $8.5 million. The ''Post'' kept most of the ''Times-Heralds advertising, features, columnists and comics — and most of its readers. It immediately jumped ahead of the ''
Evening Star'', the city's prominent afternoon paper, in circulation, and in 1959, it passed the Star in advertising linage.
* In 1961, the Post Company purchased the controlling stock interest in ''
Newsweek'' from the
Vincent Astor Foundation. When the deal was closed in
New York City, Graham wrote a check for $2,000,000 as a down payment on the $8,985,000 purchase price.
* In 1962, the Post Company again expanded into the magazine field by buying ''
Art News
''ARTnews'' is an American visual-arts magazine, based in New York City. It covers art from ancient to contemporary times. ARTnews is the oldest and most widely distributed art magazine in the world. It has a readership of 180,000 in 124 countri ...
'', the most widely read monthly in the art field, and ''
Portfolio'', a hard-cover art quarterly, from Albert M. Frankfurter.
Involvement in politics
While running the ''Washington Post'' and other parts of the Post Company, Graham played a backstage role in national and local politics.
In 1954, Graham was the leading force behind the founding of the
Federal City Council
Federal City Council is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that promotes economic development in the city of Washington, D.C., in the United States. Incorporated on September 13, 1954, it is one of the most powerful private groups in the city, ...
, a highly influential group of business, civic, education, and other leaders interested in economic development in Washington, D.C.
In 1960, he helped persuade his friend
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...
to take
Lyndon Johnson on his ticket as the vice presidential candidate, talking frequently to both during the
1960 Democratic National Convention
The 1960 Democratic National Convention was held in Los Angeles, California, on July 11–15, 1960. It nominated Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts for president and Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas for vice president. ...
in
Los Angeles, California. During the 1960 campaign, he wrote the drafts for several speeches that Johnson gave. After Kennedy and Johnson were elected in November, he successfully
lobbied
In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, which ...
for the appointment of
Douglas Dillon
Clarence Douglas Dillon (born Clarence Douglass Dillon; August 21, 1909January 10, 2003) was an American diplomat and politician, who served as U.S. Ambassador to France (1953–1957) and as the 57th Secretary of the Treasury (1961–1965). He w ...
as Secretary of the
Treasury
A treasury is either
*A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry.
*A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or ...
, and frequently discussed other appointments with Kennedy. In the years after Kennedy's inauguration, he wrote occasional drafts of speeches, primarily for Johnson, but also for the President and for
Robert F. Kennedy.
In 1961, Kennedy named Graham to serve as an incorporator for the Communications Satellite Corporation, known as
COMSAT
COMSAT (Communications Satellite Corporation) is a global telecommunications company based in the United States.
By 2007, it had branches in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela and several other countries in the Americas. ...
, a joint venture between the private sector and government for satellite communications. In October 1961, he was appointed chairman of the group.
Mental health problems and death
In Katharine Graham's book ''
Personal History
''Personal History'' is the 1997 autobiography of '' Washington Post'' publisher Katharine Graham. It won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, and received widespread critical acclaim for its candour in dealing with her husba ...
'', she notes that her husband was always intense and spontaneous, but occasionally lapsed into periods of
depression. In 1957, he had a severe
manic episode
Mania, also known as manic syndrome, is a mental and behavioral disorder defined as a state of abnormally elevated arousal, affect, and energy level, or "a state of heightened overall activation with enhanced affective expression together wit ...
and, at the time, no medicines were available for effective treatment. He retired to the couple's farm in
Marshall, Virginia, to recuperate. Thereafter, periods in which he functioned brilliantly alternated with periods in which he was morose and erratic and isolated himself. He often drank heavily (something he had done prior to 1957), and would become extremely argumentative and blunt.
Through the Post Company's ''Newsweek'' arm, Graham eventually met Australian journalist Robin Webb, and in 1962 they began an affair. In 1963, he and Webb flew to
Arizona; he appeared at a newspaper publishing convention inebriated and/or manic. At the microphone he made a number of provocative comments, including the revelation that Kennedy was sleeping with
Mary Pinchot Meyer
Mary Eno Pinchot Meyer (; October 14, 1920 – October 12, 1964) was an American painter who lived in Washington D.C. She was married to Central Intelligence Agency official Cord Meyer from 1945–1958, and became involved romantically with P ...
. His assistant,
James Truitt, called for his doctor, Leslie Farber, who flew in by private jet, as did (subsequently) Graham's wife. Graham was
sedated, bound in a straitjacket, and flown back to Washington. He was committed for five days to
Chestnut Lodge
Chestnut Lodge (formerly known as Woodlawn Hotel) was a historic building in Rockville, Maryland, United States, well known as a psychiatric institution. It was a contributing property to the West Montgomery Avenue Historic District.
History
...
, a
psychiatric hospital in
Rockville, Maryland with
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
connections.
Graham then left his wife for Robin Webb, announced to his friends that he planned to
divorce his wife and immediately remarry, and indicated that he wanted to purchase sole control of the Post Company. In June, in a fit of depression, he broke off his affair and returned home. On June 20, 1963, he entered Chestnut Lodge for the second time, and was formally diagnosed with manic depression (now called
bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder, previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally elevated mood that last from days to weeks each. If the elevated mood is severe or associated with ...
). He was treated with
psychotherapy.
On August 3, 1963, after Graham had made repeated requests of his doctors to be allowed a short stay away from the hospital, and "quite noticeably much better", according to his wife, he was permitted to go to their farmhouse in Virginia, Glen Welby, for the weekend. Graham killed himself with a shotgun while his wife was in another part of the retreat.
His body was found in a bathroom about 1:00 pm.
["Philip Graham, 48, Publisher, a Suicide"]
'' The New York Times''. August 4, 1963. Retrieved October 27, 2018. He was buried at
Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C.
During
probate, Katharine Graham's lawyer challenged the legality of her husband's last
will, written in 1963.
Edward Bennett Williams
Edward Bennett Williams (May 31, 1920 – August 13, 1988) was an American lawyer who became a high-profile defense lawyer and co-founded the law firm of Williams & Connolly. Williams also owned several professional sports teams, including the Ba ...
testified that Graham had not been of sound mind when he had instructed Williams to draw up his final
will. Williams said that he had, at the same time he prepared the will, written a
memorandum
A memorandum ( : memoranda; abbr: memo; from the Latin ''memorandum'', "(that) which is to be remembered") is a written message that is typically used in a professional setting. Commonly abbreviated "memo," these messages are usually brief and ...
for the file stating that Graham was
mentally ill, and that he was preparing the will at Graham's direction only to maintain their relationship. The judge in the case ruled that Graham had died
intestate
Intestacy is the condition of the estate of a person who dies without having in force a valid will or other binding declaration. Alternatively this may also apply where a will or declaration has been made, but only applies to part of the estat ...
. A compromise was eventually reached whereby
Katharine Graham
Katharine Meyer Graham (June 16, 1917 – July 17, 2001) was an American newspaper publisher. She led her family's newspaper, '' The Washington Post'', from 1963 to 1991. Graham presided over the paper as it reported on the Watergate scandal, w ...
gave up part of her inheritance in favor of her children.
Posthumous honors
On March 16, 1970, the
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
affiliate station in
Miami,
Florida (then WLBW-TV), changed their call letters to honor Phil to WPLG-TV; The Washington Post Company (later called Post-Newsweek Stations, and now known as the Graham Media Group) owned the station until it was sold to
Berkshire Hathaway
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Its main business and source of capital is insurance, from which it invests the float (the retained premiums ...
in 2014.
"First rough draft of history"
In April 1963, Graham delivered a speech to the overseas correspondents of ''Newsweek'' in
London:
The phrase "first rough draft of history" may have been popularized by Graham, but it did not originate with him. It had been used repeatedly in the ''Post'' in the 1940s and the earliest known use was by
Alan Barth: "News is only the first rough draft of history,"
[Who Said It First? Journalism is the ‘first rough draft of history.’]
by Jack Shafer
Jack Shafer (born November 14, 1957) is an American journalist who writes about media for ''Politico''. Prior to joining ''Politico'', he worked for Reuters and also edited and wrote the column'' "''Press Box" for ''Slate'', an online magazine. B ...
, ''Slate'' (August 30, 2010) and earlier expressions of similar sentiments dating to the first decade of the 20th century.
[ Journalism - Wikiquote]
See also
*
*
List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 6)
References
General references
* ''
Personal History
''Personal History'' is the 1997 autobiography of '' Washington Post'' publisher Katharine Graham. It won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, and received widespread critical acclaim for its candour in dealing with her husba ...
'', Katharine Graham, Knopf, 1997, .
''Philip Graham, 48, Publisher, a Suicide'' New York Times, August 4, 1963
Washington Post Company history, 1950–1974
{{DEFAULTSORT:Graham, Phil
1915 births
1963 deaths
1963 suicides
United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II
Recipients of the Legion of Merit
20th-century American newspaper publishers (people)
Graham family (newspapers)
Harvard Law School alumni
Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States
People from Sioux Falls, South Dakota
People with bipolar disorder
Suicides by firearm in Virginia
Military personnel from South Dakota
University of Florida alumni
United States Army Air Forces officers
The Washington Post people
George Washington University trustees
Journalists from South Dakota
People from Marshall, Virginia
The Washington Post publishers
Miami Senior High School alumni
20th-century American journalists
American male journalists
Burials at Oak Hill Cemetery (Washington, D.C.)