2007.10.01: October 1, 2007: Headlines: COS - Tunisia: Obituaries: Staff: Headquarters: Country Directors - Tunisia: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal: Obituary for Tunisia Country Director Richard A. Graham
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2007.10.01: October 1, 2007: Headlines: COS - Tunisia: Obituaries: Staff: Headquarters: Country Directors - Tunisia: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal: Obituary for Tunisia Country Director Richard A. Graham
Obituary for Tunisia Country Director Richard A. Graham
Graham became one of Sargent Shriver's assistants with the Peace Corps in 1961. In 1963, he was named the first Peace Corps director in Tunisia. Graham served in administration with the Peace Corps, including two years with his family in Tunisia.
Obituary for Tunisia Country Director Richard A. Graham
Graham led efforts in education, civil rights
He held high posts in Peace Corps, EEOC, NOW
By AMY RABIDEAU SILVERS
asilvers@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Sept. 30, 2007
Richard A. Graham began his professional life by designing a better variable speed system for electrical motors that came to be used "in everything from food processing to printing to mechanical hearts," according to a 1960s biography.
Most of his life, though, would be spent in government service and education, ethics and philosophy.
Graham served in administration with the Peace Corps, including two years with his family in Tunisia. One of the first commissioners with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, he became a founding officer with the National Organization for Women. He served as head of the National Teacher Corps.
Graham died Sept. 24, just days after a severe stroke. He was 86. He and his wife, Nancy Aring Graham, made their home in Royal Oak, Md.
He grew up in the Milwaukee area, earning a mechanical engineering degree from Cornell University.
He next served with the U.S. Army during World War II, including as an ordnance officer in the mountains of Iran and later stateside with the Air Force on so-called "buzz bombs," said his son Charles "Hoey" Graham.
Back in civilian life, Graham joined Graham Transmission, founded by his father, Louis Graham.
Graham later was a co-founder of Jordon Controls.
The idea of public service began to call. Then a Republican involved in Ozaukee County politics, Graham became one of Sargent Shriver's assistants with the Peace Corps in 1961. In 1963, he was named the first Peace Corps director in Tunisia.
In 1965, President Johnson named Graham as one of five commissioners of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, created as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The act mandated that employment be handled "without regard to race, color, religion, sex or national origin."
The issue of equal rights for women was on the front burner. Some states, including Wisconsin, still had laws setting different limits on working hours for women. Help-wanted ads listed "Jobs-Men" and "Jobs-Women" - something that Graham made it his mission to change.
"If we go at discrimination against women in employment only complaint by complaint, it will take centuries to get around the country," he said. "We need a mass attack on the problem; laws change practices, practices change attitudes, attitudes change situations."
Referring to one employment lawsuit, Graham drew on his experience in Tunisia.
"The respondent's arguments sound like those used by Arabs to keep their women indoors or behind veils," he said in a 1966 interview.
Graham also observed that racial discrimination practices differed in northern and southern states, "but the results are about the same."
In 1966, Johnson appointed him the first director of the National Teacher Corps, with the goal of bringing teachers to the poorest U.S. communities. That effort never receiving adequate funding.
"He was a Midwestern Republican in a Democratic administration, and I think they were looking for some balance," his son said. "I know that he voted for Nixon, because he and Mom canceled each other's votes, but he did see value in some of Johnson's Great Society programs."
Graham became a Democrat.
He later served as executive director of the Lawrence Kohlberg Center for Moral Development at Harvard University and as president of Goddard College, where he founded the Goddard-Cambridge Center for Social Change. He last worked with the Catholic University of America's Council for Research in Values and Philosophy in Washington, D.C.
"He was just a very principled man but, in saying that, he was very accepting and I think embracing, warm and self-effacing," Hoey Graham said.
In addition to his wife and son Hoey, survivors include daughters Peggy Sue "Busy" and Nan; sons Dick and John; sister Sue Graham Mingus; brother Robert; grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
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Headlines: October, 2007; Peace Corps Tunisia; Directory of Tunisia RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Tunisia RPCVs; Obituaries; Staff; Peace Corps Headquarters; Country Directors - Tunisia
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Story Source: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Tunisia; Obituaries; Staff; Headquarters; Country Directors - Tunisia
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