Graham Elected to Hall of Fame

Graham Elected to Hall of Fame

      Katharine Graham, former publisher of The Washington Post and chairman and CEO of The Washington Post Company, has been elected to the Maryland-Delaware-District of Columbia Newspaper Hall of Fame.
      When she is inducted in February, Graham will join 33 other newspaper men and women who have been similarly honored over the years and whose careers span nearly three centuries.
      "She’s a giant in the newspaper industry," said John League, chair of the MDDC Hall of Fame Committee. "Her selection is probably long overdue."
      Under Graham’s leadership as publisher from 1969 to 1979, The Post faced some of the great issues in the newspaper business and took courageous stands, he said, citing the newspaper’s publication of the Pentagon Papers, a secret history of the Vietnam War, and its historic investigation of the Watergate scandal in the Nixon administration. "History will prove she made the right decisions," added League, editor and publisher of The Herald-Mail in Hagerstown.
      MDDC President Legusta Floyd, publisher and editor of The Prince George’s Post, noted that Graham’s unanimous election by the Association’s Board of Directors recognizes her distinguished newspaper career as both "a fervent champion of a free press and as a business leader of unusual talent and determination."
      Graham is a daughter of Agnes Ernst Meyer and Eugene Meyer, who purchased The Washington Post at a bankruptcy sale in 1933. After attending Vassar for two years, Graham graduated from the University of Chicago in 1938. She worked as a reporter for the San Francisco News and later joined the staff of The Washington Post, working in the editorial and circulation departments.
      In addition to her service as publisher, Graham was chief executive officer of The Washington Post Company from 1973 to 1991 and served as president from 1963 to 1973. She was chairman of the board from 1973 to 1993 and is currently chairman of the executive committee, a position she has held since 1993.
      In 1998 Graham received the Pulitzer Prize for Biography for her memoir, Personal History.
      "We feel privileged as a regional press association to be able to call her one of our own," said MDDC President-elect Mike Powell, managing editor of The Frederick News-Post. "Many national and international organizations have honored her for her accomplishments, but we take special satisfaction in the fact that she is one of us, publishing a newspaper in our communities."
      The MDDC Newspaper Hall of Fame is located in the Journalism Building at the University of Maryland College Park. Honorees include William Parks publisher of Maryland’s first newspaper, H.L. Mencken of the Baltimore Evening Sun, the Association’s first female president, Gertrude Poe, former editor of the Laurel Leader, Sam Lacy, the sports editor of the Afro-American Newspapers, and Washington Post Editor Ben Bradlee.