Monday, November 27, 2017

Linfielder Howard Graves shared stationery from his travels





Howard Graves, a bureau chief for The Associated Press in New Mexico, Oregon, and Hawaii for The Associated Press during a 41-year career, exchanged correspondence and newspaper clippings with numerous former colleagues over the years – to the point where he became known as the “UnaClipper” or the “ClipMeister.”

Graves, a member of the Linfield Class of 1951, also shared stationery with former colleagues that he picked up during travels. 

Paul Albright, worked for Graves in the Albuquerque, New Mexico, AP bureau in the 1960s. The stationery exchange began when Albright occasionally scribbled a note to Graves, using a page of Holiday Inn or Motel 6 stationery. 

Somehow, Graves got the notion that he should share stationery with Albright and others, partly so they would continue to correspond with him. 

As Graves and his wife, Audrey, motored through the Midwest, the Far West and elsewhere, Graves kept stationery from their hotel/motel rooms and enclosed it with his latest missive to Albright who could not possibly use it all. 

When Graves died at age 90 on Jan. 25, 2017, in Prescott, Arizona, Albright had at least a ream of unused stationery Graves sent him from hotels and motels in the U.S. and abroad. In this slide show is a sampling: