jeudi 24 janvier 2008

RESUME

Frederick Lorimer Graham was born in Bay Shore, Long Island on July 20th 1915.
He attended the Buckley School in New York, the Loomis Institute (now The Loomis Chaffee School) in Windsor, Connecticut, Princeton University (class of 1937) and the Sorbonne in Paris. On graduating from Princeton, he taught on an exchange program at the College Colonial de Sidi Bel Abbes in Algeria. On returning to the States he was an advertising copywriter until, as a Reserve Lieutenant, he was called into the Army of the United States in August 1941.
Graham was assigned to Fort Hancock and admitted to the Regular Army. He was then sent to Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. He was assigned successively to Allied Force Headquarters, Fifteenth Army Group, to Liaison at Seventh Army with General Patton, Fifth Army with General Clark. Subsequently recalled to AFHQ, he was sent to Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force in London as AFHQ liaison officer for political affairs. In this capacity he played a major role in preventing the Allies from imposing a military government in France. Major Graham was then transferred to the First French Army as liaison officer for political affairs.
Graham took part in the landings of Gela, Salerno, Anzio and Normandy and the campaigns of North Africa, Sicily, Italy, Normandy, France, Germany and Austria. After the Armistice, he became Chief of Mission to the French Zone of Occupation in Austria where he was intimately concerned with Franco- American relations. Among the delicate diplomatic problems was the emigration of the Eastern countries’ Jewish population to Palestine. He was, during this period, decorated by the Haggenau. Graham was a Lieutenant Colonel and was demobilized in 1947.
He married Colette Perrier in 1945. The marriage was dissolved in 1962.They had three children, Sylvia, Isabelle and Frederick. Sylvia died in June 2005, Isabelle, an Interior Architect is now studying, Frederick is a financier.
In 1947, Graham returned to France became successively European Manager of Cabot Corporation and Witco Chemical Co. and established a business which eventually had 1000 employees in eight countries and which he sold in 1992 to an American Corporation.
In 1978, he married Anita Jaatinen of the Finnish diplomatic service. This has been an ideal marriage.
Aside from his business career, Graham was closely associated with American patriotic affairs and Franco-American relations. He was elected President General of the Society of the Cincinnati in 1992, America’s first patriotic association of which George Washington was the first President General. The Society has a French branch originally organized with the approval of Louis XVI for those French officers who participated in the American Revolution. Franco-American relations are a prime concern of the Society.Colonel Graham has received several American decorations including nine campaign medals as well as the French Croix de Guerre with Palm. H is an Officer of the Legion of Honor. He now resides with Mrs. Graham in Fribourg, Switzerland and has a home in France.