Bob Graham '40, Newsman

For more than 17 years as Dartmouth College News Services director, a position reporters often consider to be "on the other side of the fence," Bob Graham has thus introduced himself at countless College meetings.

Graham has let his long and distinguished newspaper career be his guide in handling the delicate, often trying job of chief College information specialist, reporter, and spokesman. As he reaches retirement, few would argue with that approach. While serving three college presidents, he has stuck to his belief that the College is best served by telling the truth the bad with the good while always keeping at heart the well-being of a place he truly loves, Dartmouth College. It is not always the easiest of tasks.

Dero Saunders '35, contributing editor of Forbes Magazine and a long-time friend and confidant of Graham, said recently:

"The most notable thing about Bob is that he always saw things with two sets of eyes those of the devoted alumnus and those of the newsman. He knew that news could not be managed. He always held unswervingly to the conviction that if you help journalists to see for themselves, then justice will triumph at least five to four."

Bill Scherman '34, retired vice president of Newsweek Inc., like Saunders, a veteran of countless Alumni Council meetings shared with Graham, said: "Many working newsmen leave the profession for what they formally (and condescendingly) call 'public relations,' and thereafter spend their lives with their feet on the desk writing, polishing, and repolishing maybe one feature story per month.

"Bob Graham could afford no such luxury. Between putting out studentset fires or smoothing ruffled faculty and administration feathers, he would have to keep aware of the myriad newsworthy pursuits peculiar to a flourishing college campus, and knock out half-a-dozen releases a day. How Bob could handle so much activity with half the office staff of any other Ivy institution, spend innumerable halfhours on the phone with sources and contacts, and still have time to shoot the breeze with any friendly or unfriendly alumnus who happened to drop in, was always a mystery to me. And without any shorthand, he could still take more notes at a meeting than anyone I've ever known."

One fellow worker first met Graham during what some have called "Dartmouth's longest night," the student takeover of Parkhurst Hall in 1969. He remembers checking out against every conceivable source information from this Dartmouth PR man. He found every statement to be absolutely true. Dartmouth could be trusted.

Bob Graham first saw Dartmouth as a freshman in 1936 and that first glimpse of Baker Tower is a sight he has never forgotten. He left the College for World War II and a role as a military information specialist with an armored division. His newspaper career included coverage for the Boston Herald of Boston higher education and the Curley administration. He moved on to positions with the U.S. Information Agency and the Foreign Service. He worked as a news writer for NBC's Today Show and as a copywriter, editor, editorial writer, and columnist for the Providence Journal. After four years as apologist for Harvard Business School, he returned in 1968 to run Dartmouth's news operation.

Graham, the newsman, reflects but one of many sides, too numerous to totally detail here, of this remarkable man. There is, for instance, Bob Graham the teacher, long considered Dartmouth's unofficial journalism instructor having served 16 years on The Dartmouth's Board of Proprietors and having given professional and fatherly advice to countless student interns.

Bob Graham, outdoorsman, has for years led freshman trips over the White Mountains and Hanover's rimming hills. He also is an avid and accomplished skier and sailor. He has paddled 200 miles by canoe on the Connecticut River all the way down to the sea and he is a former commodore of the Dartmouth Summer Sailing Club.

Graham, the athlete, all 145 pounds of him, had a rough go at freshman football, boxed, and played lacrosse as an undergraduate.

Graham, lover of music, married to the former Lili Passini, a descendant of Felix Mendelssohn, lent his voice to the Glee Club and has sung in various choirs and musical productions over the years.

Graham, the confidant, has not onlygiven invaluable advice to Presidents Dickey, Kemeny, and McLaughlin, faculty, alumni, and fellow workers, but has served as freshman adviser for 10 years.

Bob and Lili, Dartmouth parents, have two Dartmouth sons, Andreas '80 and Chris '82. Daughter Leslie well serves the College as a Tuck School employee.

But Bob's clearest identity on the Hanover Plain is as a newsman. His little news shop has consistently been one of the finest in the Ivy League. Indeed, this year it was rated as one of the nation's 10 best by TheCourman Report.

Facing retirement, Bob has professed an interest in "climbing some mountains at my own speed." He will be readily available to offer welcome and, likely, badly-needed counsel to the College's news operation.

Saunders said Graham's finest moment may have come when he had to produce a script to accompany a film clip for the halftime of a nationally televised Dartmouth-Cornell football game. Graham, the writer, wrote:

"To wearers of the Dartmouth Green, the essence of their 'College on the Hill' is as elusive as a campfire flame or a snowflake. It's a compound of history, place, size and spirit. . . . For them Dartmouth, with its 'sharp and misty mornings, crunch of feet in snow, long white afternoons and twilight glow' is more than a college. For those once touched by it, Dartmouth is a state of the mind and an affair of the heart."

Bob Graham '4O