Graham, George A. (George Adams), 1904-2005

George Adams Graham was born in Cambridge, New York on December 23, 1904. He received his bachelor's degree from Monmouth College, Illinois in 1926, followed by a master's degree and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in 1927 and 1930. He married Rosanna Grace Webster in 1930, and they had three children: Andrew Allen, Lora Katherine, and Mary.

Graham was a faculty member in the Department of Politics at Princeton University from 1930 to 1958, serving as department chair from 1946-1949, and again from 1950-1953. From 1942-1945 he served as in various capacities with the U.S. Bureau of the Budget. From 1944-1945 he served as chief of the Division of Administrative Management of Government Organization of the Hoover Commission. In 1948 he served as chair of the Committee on Indian Affairs, a subcommittee of the Hoover Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of Government. Graham also served on the Hoover Commission Task Force on Personnel and Civil Service from 1954-1955.

In 1958 Graham left Princeton to join the Brookings Institution as director of governmental studies, a position he retained until 1968. He then served as executive director of the National Academy of Public Administration from 1968-1972. Graham concluded his career at Nova University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida as professor of public administration, achieving emeritus status in 1985.

Among Graham's books, the most notable include Education for Public Administration (1941), Morality in American Politics (1952), and America's Capacity to Govern (1960).

Graham participated in a number of other federally mandated committees and non-governmental organizations such as the Detroit Bureau of Government Research (1929-1930), the Senate Subcommittee on Ethics in Government (1951), and the Ford Foundation (1956-1957), among others.

From the guide to the George Adams Graham Papers, 1935-1995, 1935-1964, (Princeton University. Library. Dept. of Rare Books and Special Collections)