William P. Graham, III, M.D., 1934 to 2006

Abstract

William P. Graham, III, M.D., a past chairman of the American Board of Plastic Surgery and past president of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, died in Wellington, Florida, on October 8, 2006, after a long illness. Dr. Graham was born in Plainfield, New Jersey, and grew up in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, where he went to high school. In 1955, he received his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University. Dr. Graham attended medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating with a doctorate in medicine in 1959. He completed his general surgery training at Colorado General Hospital, in Denver, Colorado, under Ben Eisman and at the University of California Medical Center in San Francisco. In 1965, he returned to the University of Pennsylvania, where he completed his plastic surgery residency under Dr. Henry Royster in 1967. While still a resident, he advanced the career of medical students and younger residents as a role model in surgery and teaching and by demonstrating his deep passion for the specialty of plastic surgery. Dr. Graham remained on the staff at the University of Pennsylvania until 1971, when he was recruited by Dr. John Waldhausen to be the first chief of the Division of Plastic Surgery at The Pennsylvania State University’s new Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. Dr. Graham was an outstanding technician and had few peers as a teacher. The seed for his career was planted in his youth, when he learned how to tie fishing flies. His teacher, impressed at the pupil’s skill and dexterity, suggested he become a surgeon. Dr. Graham not only maintained a passion for fly-fishing for the rest of his life but in the same way influenced many young students to enter plastic surgery. A residency program in Hershey was started in 1971, and to date it has graduated 52 residents under his and his successors’ direction. Dr. Graham had a tremendous impact on his trainees and medical students. He was the quintessential professional, always perfectly behaved, always respectful, and always perfectly groomed, wearing his trademark bow-tie whether it was 4 o’clock in the morning, when he often did his rounds, or midnight, while he was sewing up a laceration in the emergency room. Bill Graham practiced the full spectrum of plastic surgery. In the early years of the Medical Center he took general surgery call, and for his entire tenure at the Hershey Medical Center he performed head and neck cancer surgery and the lion’s share of the thyroid and parathyroid surgery. It was as a hand surgeon, though, that he developed a particular expertise. Together with his friend Eugene Kilgore, he coauthored The Hand: Surgical and Nonsurgical Management, for many years one of the standard hand surgery textbooks. Bill Graham authored more than 300 scientific articles, including 120 peer-reviewed publications and 37 book chapters. In 2001, his past residents, patients, and friends set up an endowment to establish a professorship in plastic surgery in his name. He was with all of them at the celebratory inauguration in 2003. Dr. Graham served as chairman of the American Board of Plastic Surgery in 1985 and president of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery in 1992. He was active in many other professional and scientific organizations, including the American Society for Surgery of the Hand, the American Surgical Association, and the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. He was an honorary member of the British Society for Surgery of the Hand and also served as president of the Northeastern Society of Plastic Surgeons, chairman of the Association of Academic Chairmen of Plastic Surgery, chairman of the Plastic Surgery Research Council, and vice chairman of the Residency Review Committee. Dr. Graham is survived by his wife, Anne Moretta-Graham, his daughters from a previous marriage and their husbands, Susan P. and Eric R. Johnston of San Francisco, California, and Elizabeth A. Graham and Brad S. Feldman of Lexington, Mass., and his granddaughter, Miriam A. Feldman. Dr. Graham was a consummate gentleman, teacher, and mentor in the truest sense of the word. His friends, colleagues, and students will cherish the memory of this wonderful man, who abundantly lived the essential tenets as a leader in plastic surgery through service, sacrifice, and, above all, example.Figure: William P. Graham, III, M.D., 1934 to 2006.