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:
