Katharine Graham
(born June 16, 1917,
New York
, New York, U.S.?died July 17, 2001,
Boise
, Idaho) was an American business executive who owned and published various news publications, most notably
The Washington Post
, which she transformed into one of the leading newspapers in the
United States
. She was especially known for supporting the
Post
’s investigation into the
Watergate scandal
.
The daughter of the publisher
Eugene Meyer
and the educator Agnes Meyer, Katharine Meyer
attended
Vassar College
from 1934 to 1936 and then transferred to the
University of Chicago
, graduating in 1938. After a year as a reporter for the
San Francisco News
, she joined the editorial staff of
The Washington Post
, which her father had bought in 1933. She also worked in the editorial and circulation departments of the Sunday
Post
. In 1940 she married Philip Graham, a law clerk. From 1945 she gave up her career in favour of her family. In 1946 her husband became publisher of the
Post
, and in 1948 the couple bought the voting stock of the corporation from her father. She remained apart from active involvement in the business as the Washington Post Company
acquired
the rival
Times-Herald
in 1954,
Newsweek
magazine in 1961, and several radio and television stations.
In September 1963, following her husband’s death by suicide, Graham assumed the presidency of the Washington Post Company. (From 1969 to 1979 she also held the title of publisher.) Under her leadership,
The Washington Post
became known for its aggressive investigative reporting, led by
Ben Bradlee
, whom Graham named executive editor in 1968. With the publication of the
Pentagon Papers
in 1971 and the newspaper’s unrelenting investigation of
Watergate
in 1972?74, the
Post
increased its circulation and became the most influential newspaper in the U.S. capital and one of the most powerful in the nation. In 1972 Graham took over as
chief executive officer
of the Washington Post Company, thereby becoming the first female CEO of a
Fortune 500
company; she held the post until 1991. In 1998 she received the
Pulitzer Prize
for biography for her autobiography,
Personal History
(1997).