Persona

Graham, William Roger

1919-1988

William Roger Graham was born in Montreal in March 1919. In the 1920s, the Graham family moved to Chicago, where Roger Graham’s father, William Creighton Graham, was Professor of Old Testament Languages and Literature at the University of Chicago. W.C. Graham moved his family to Winnipeg in 1938 when he was appointed Principal of United College (now the University of Winnipeg). Roger Graham completed a B.A. at United College in 1941 and followed that with an M.A. (1945) and Ph.D. (1950) from the University of Toronto. From 1947 to 1958, Graham taught History at Regina College and then moved to the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon in 1958. Graham was promoted to full Professor of History in 1963. In 1968, Graham moved to Queen's University where he was named Douglas Professor of Canadian and Colonial History, a position he held until his retirement. Graham received an honorary doctorate from the University of Winnipeg in 1969. He served as head of the Queen’s History department from 1973 to 1976. Graham was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a winner of Canada Council and Guggenheim fellowships. Graham retired in 1984 and was granted the title Professor Emeritus in the Queen's University Department of History. Graham wrote several political biographies but is probably best known for his three volume biography of former Prime Minister Arthur Meighen, published between 1960 and 1965. Roger Graham died on November 17, 1988 in Kingston, Ontario. The Roger Graham Fellowship is awarded annually at Queen’s University to an incoming graduate student who is specializing in modern Canadian history in the Department of History.