Obituary for journalist Howard Graves
Journalist Howard Graves, who shaped journalistic
coverage for the Associated Press for 40 years across three western states, has
died.
Howard Graves shown in 1993 AP Photo.
Howard Graves shown in 1993 AP Photo.
He was chief of AP bureaus in
Albuquerque, N.M. (1962-1977), Portland, Ore. (1977-1982) and Honolulu
(1982-1993).
His sons Graham and Carson Graves said their
father, age 90, died Jan. 25, 2017, of health issues related to age and Alzheimer's
in his apartment in a Prescott, Ariz., assisted living community.
Graves and his wife, Audrey
Gayle Parsnick Graves, moved to Prescott in April 1994 from Hawaii after he
retired from the AP in 1993. She died in Prescott at age 82 in 2012. They were
married 57 years.
Survivors include their sons
Carson Graves, Edmonds, Wash., and Graham Graves, Little Rock, Ark. Also
surviving is granddaughter, Kathryn Taylor Graves, and daughter-in-law Dana
Graves. They live in Edmonds.
Born Nov. 11, 1926, in Robinson
(Crawford Co.), Ill., Howard Graves was the son of Perry and Marvel Graves. He
had three brothers and sister Julia Graves Roberson, Robinson, Ill., who
survives.
His parents were owners/operators
of Robinson Lumber and Coal Co., where he worked
during and after graduating from Robinson Township High School May 23, 1944. Later,
thanks to his family’s connection to the lumber trade, he worked for a summer
at a Toledo, Ore., sawmill.
In high school he was student
body president, played football and ran track and covered Robinson Township High
athletics for the weekly Robinson Argus newspaper and as a stringer for the
Chicago Daily News and the Champaign, Ill., News-Gazette.
In October 1944, he left the
Robinson Argus and a job as sports editor to enlist in the U.S. Navy. He served
on the newly-launched U.S.S. Midway aircraft carrier. World War II ended in
August 1945 and he was discharged a year later.
He studied 1946-1947 and 1949-1950 at the University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo., and two
semesters (fall 1947 and spring 1948) at Linfield College, McMinnville, Ore.
As a reporter for the Linfield
Review student newspaper, he covered the 1948 Republican presidential debate held
in Portland, Ore., between candidates Gov. Thomas Dewey of New York and Harold
Stassen, former Minnesota governor.
In the summer of 1948, he was
among those who were drivers – nicknamed “gearjammers” -- of the iconic canvas
topped red bus driving tourists through Glacier National Park in Montana.
Deciding not to continue in college, he worked as a reporter and editor on daily and weekly
newspapers in Robinson and Centralia, Ill, and Shelby, Mont.
His reporting skills caught the attention of
the Associated Press which he joined April 21, 1952. During his AP career, Graves
was a news writer in Little Rock, Ark; Helena, Mont; and Denver, Colo. In May
1957, he became an AP administrator. Twice he was with the Portland, Ore., AP
bureau, first 1957-1962 as regional membership executive for the Northwest and
then as chief of the bureau, 1977-1982. For 14 years, he was AP bureau chief in
Albuquerque, N.M., 1962-1977. For 11 years, starting in November 1982 until his
retirement at the end of 1993, he was Honolulu AP bureau chief.
In summary, he
spent 40 years-plus with the Associated Press, 31 of those years as a chief of
bureau. At the time of his retirement, he was the senior chief of bureau in the
domestic service.
Graves once wrote that he
"never won an award for reporting or writing." His career, one of
journalistic excellence and leadership, proved stellar, if not award-winning.
Upon Graves’ retirement, Louis D. Boccardi,
Associated Press president/CEO said Graves “carried the flag high with honor.” Another AP executive said, Graves was "probably the most modest man I’ve ever known. And he would be the last guy to call attention to his own
achievements." And, yet another executive of the AP said, “Howard’s objectivity, investigative abilities, tenacity and
modesty won them all."
Graves was nominated by the AP
for the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for Best Regional Enterprise Reporting. His
nomination was for more than 120 stories he wrote in 10 months – traveling more
than 30,000 miles -- for AP out of the Albuquerque bureau. The stories were about
the misappropriation and misspending of hundreds of millions of federal dollars
by the Navajo tribal government on the 25,000-square-mile Navajo Reservation in
New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.
In a 1976 letter, the editor of the Grants, N.M., Daily Beacon (now the
Cibola County Beacon) newspaper said,
"Howard
Graves has done the
honest, decent citizens of our country a great service through his
investigative series on the Navajo tribal government."
An editorial in the Farmington, N.M, Daily Times
praised Graves’ stories "all based on the facts as he was able to put them
together, after hours, days, and months of interviewing people and studying
documents."
While in New Mexico, Graves was
active in freedom of information matters. He received the 1972 Dan Burrows
Memorial Award for work in the field from the New Mexico Society of
Professional Journalists chapter. He was cited for helping protect and promote
freedom of the press and free flow of information to the public by the news
media.
During Graves’ tenure as AP
Portland bureau chief, he directed news coverage prior to and after the 1980
eruption of Mount St. Helens in southwestern Washington state and the 1978 crash in
suburban Portland of United Airlines Flight 173 after it ran out of fuel. While
based in Oregon, he traveled and spoke nationally while serving as 1980-1981
president of the Society of Professional Journalists.
As
Honolulu AP bureau chief, Graves directed news and news photo coverage for an
area more than three million square miles covering six time zones. He
supervised coverage of Philippines’ president Ferdinand Marcos and his wife,
Imelda going into exile in Hawaii; hurricanes in Hawaii and the Central
Pacific; Aloha Airlines Flight 243’s fuselage being ripped apart after an
explosive decompression in flight and the 50th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor
attack. He wrote of political status changes in the UN’s Trust Territory of the
Pacific and the U.S. insular areas of Guam and American Samoa. He was the primary reporter on the Republic of Palau in Micronesia
becoming an independent country in 1994.
As an
AP bureau chief, Graves’ first priority was management. But, he always
reported. For example, he was on a first
name basis with Navajo leaders while working in the Albuquerque bureau. From
the Honolulu bureau, he traveled throughout the Central Pacific and made
contacts and gained insights which were reflected in what he wrote.
Following his retirement from
the AP, a Honolulu Star-Bulletin columnist wrote, "No journalist knows the
present and former U.S.-administered islands in the Pacific better than Howard Graves." Another columnist
for the same newspaper called Graves, "Mr. Pacific."
During his career, he spoke on
university campuses from Florida to Alaska.
After retiring to Prescott,
Ariz., which Graves the journalist liked to refer to as “Press-kit,” he spoke
at Linfield College, Washington State University and civic groups about
"America’s Forgotten Colonies." His speech was about the U.S.
territories in the Western Pacific, nuclear test bombing in the Pacific after
World War II, and why the U.S. holds onto the possessions.
Also, in retirement, he served
on the advisory board for the Northern Arizona University Lumberjack student
newspaper and was writing and editing coach at the Gallup, N.M., Independent
daily newspaper.
He helped assure Associated
Press coverage after retiring from the AP in 1993:
--AP reported in 2003 about the Robinson, Ill., Argus printing its final edition. The newspaper had published since 1906.
--AP reported in 2003 about the Robinson, Ill., Argus printing its final edition. The newspaper had published since 1906.
--AP covered a 2010 reunion in
Montana of former “gearjammers” who drove Glacier National Park’s iconic red
buses. The reunion took place during the park’s centennial.
The
Graves family suggests memorial donations to Good Samaritan Society, Marley
House, 1063 Ruth St., Prescott, AZ 86301-1729, or a favorite charity.
------------------------
These issues of Connecting newsletter for AP retirees include information about/tributes
to/remembrances of Howard Graves:
Connecting – Jan. 26, 2017
Connecting – Jan. 27, 2017
Connecting – Jan. 30, 2017
Connecting – Feb. 10, 2017
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------PHOTOS------
Howard
Graves obituary in Prescott, Ariz., Daily Courier 1/26/2017
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Below (click URL) see scans of what Howard provided (except for the SPD/SDX Otter Rock, Ore., notepad page) in 2011.
http://wildcatville.blogspot.com/2017/06/speaking-of-howard-graves.html
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Not only was
Howard Graves the Uniclipper, but he put newspapers on front steps as well
From a late
Sept 2017 edition of “Connecting” newsletter for AP retirees
Paul
Albright (Email) - Having noted recent posts in Connecting on a
newspaper-thieving coyote and a newspaper-eating elk reminded me of another
newspaper delivery story featuring our AP colleague, the late Howard Graves
whose 40+ years with The AP included chief of bureau in Albuquerque, Portland,
and Honolulu. After retiring in 1993, Howard and Audrey Graves settled on
Prescott, AZ, where Howard spent his time clipping bylined articles and mailing
them to AP colleagues around the globe. He became known by his self-proclaimed
nickname, the "Unaclipper."
But the
"Unaclipper" also was the "Morning Walker." Howard would
arise early for his morning stroll through his Prescott neighborhood, picking
up the just-delivered newspapers from the driveways and placing them on the
steps and front porches. It was an almost-morning ritual that added to his
exercise and gained him attention and appreciation from the neighbors. Some
neighbors thanked him with a surprise bottle of wine or a baked treat during
the holidays. At least one neighbor would leave his daily New York
Times on his doorstep so that Howard could include it in his one-man
clipping service. Howard had to give up his clippings and his door-to-door
newspaper deliveries as his health deteriorated; he passed away in January 2017
at the age of 89.
:::::::Howard Graves in photos of AP bureau chiefs:
