Katharine "Kay" Meyer Graham

Born: 1917

Died: 2001

Country of Birth: USA

Nationality: USA

Ethnicity: White

Vassar College 1934-36 the transferred to University of Chicago BA History 1938

""We live in a dirty and dangerous world. There are some things the general public does not need to know, and shouldn't. I believe democracy flourishes when the government can take legitimate steps to keep its secrets and when the press can decide whether to print what it knows." (Wikipedia); 'The only thing I think any of us want,' she once said, 'is to last as long as we're any good. And then not.'" (encyclopedia.com); "The thing women must do to rise to power is to redefine their femininity. Once, power was considered a masculine attribute. In fact power has no sex." (thoughtco.com); "Some questions don't have answers, which is a terribly difficult lesson to learn." (thoughtco.com); "If we had failed to pursue the facts as far as they led, we would have denied the public any knowledge of an unprecedented scheme of political surveillance and sabotage. (on Watergate)" (thoughtco.com); "The worst handicap women work under is the self-inflicted one – that is, if you've grown up thinking of yourself as a second-class citizen, that you tend always to put yourself down." (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/warren-buffett-on-legendary-washington-post-publisher-katharine-graham/); “The press in this country under a constitutional democracy is set up to be a critic of the government,” she says in the wake of Nixon’s resignation, “and it’s important that they do that, with a lot of responsibility.” (latimes.com); "

— Katharine "Kay" Meyer Graham

Field of Study: Publishing

Institution/Corporation: Washington Post; Newsweek

Degrees & Memberships: Honorary Degree: Colby College (1973); Member: Rockefeller University Council; Board of Directors of the Associated Press (1974); Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1988); Board of the D.C. Child and Family Services;

Awards: David Rockefeller Award, Museum of Modern Art; 1973 Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award; 1975 S. Roger Horchow Award for Greatest Public Service by a Private Citizen, Jefferson Awards; 1987 Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism; 1997 Freedom Medal; 1999 Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement; 2000 named one of the International Press Institute's 50 World Press Freedom Heroes of the past 50 years; 2002 Presidential Medal of Freedom; 2002 National Women's Hall of Fame; 1987 only woman listed in the top 25 of Forbes, Inc's list of 800 Most Powerful Men & Women in corporate America; 1997 Pulitzer Prize for her autobiography "Personal History"; 1993 Global business Hall of Fame

Achievements: first woman elected to the board of the Associated Press; 1972 became the first female CEO of a Fortune 500 company, the Washington Post; held the title of publisher from 1969 to 1979, and that of chairwoman of the board from 1973 to 1991; supported reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein when they brought the Watergate story to the Post; was publisher when the Post defied the United States government to publish the classified Pentagon Papers; emphasizing freedom of the press, she strengthened the role of newspapers in exposing government actions;