John Graham, a retired attorney who practiced in Princeton, passed away at his home in Griggstown on August 23 at the age of 94. Born in Princeton on February 1, 1931, he was the third son of Mary Louise Graham and Frank Dunstone Graham, a professor of economics at Princeton University. John was educated in Princeton public schools through ninth grade, and then at the Lawrenceville School. A member of Princeton University’s class of 1952, he majored in philosophy. He also participated in crew, football, and track, as a shot-put specialist and hammer thrower.
He went to Harvard Law School, where he minored in baseball and was often at Fenway Park. Ted Williams was his all-time hero. After graduating from law school, John moved to New York City, where he worked for a downtown law firm. He shared an apartment with John McPhee, five weeks younger and also born in Princeton, who was each other’s oldest friend. Leaving the law firm in the following year, John joined the New York legal staff of the Coca-Cola Company.
He then moved back to Princeton and established his one-man law firm. John moved into half of a double house on Linden Lane, roof to basement, divided vertically by a common wall. Georgia H. York, who worked at the Educational Testing Service, the seat of the College Board, soon moved into the other half of the house. Mr. McPhee has averred that Georgia absorbed John right through the wall. They were married in 1971 and soon moved permanently to Canal Road, Griggstown, where Georgia died in 2013.
John is survived by three stepchildren — Jeff York, of Rocky Hill; Connie Lynch, of Pasadena, California; Molly Wood, of Villanova, Pennsylvania — and five grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren.
Preceding John in death are two brothers, Hugh and Dunstan, and Terry York, a stepson.