Deceased May 19, 2012
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In Memory
L. Saxon Graham, Ph.D.; a cancer researcher, professor emeritus and former chairman of the department of social and preventive medicine at the University at Buffalo, died May 19, 2012, at his home in Orchard Park, N.Y., at the age of 90.
Dr. Graham was a Buffalo native, completing undergraduate degrees in history and English at Amherst College, he then received intensive Vietnamese language instruction at the University of California at Berkley preparatory to service from 1944 to 1946 in the Army Counter Intelligence Corps. He enjoyed international prominence as author or co-author of almost 200 scholarly publications and was a founding director of the American College of Epidemiology, remaining throughout his career among the nation’s best-funded researchers.
His earliest cancer research concerned the dangers of smoking cigarettes, the evidence for which he presented to the New York State Legislature in the early 1960s while urging passage of the first government-mandated consumer warnings on tobacco products.
His pioneering studies in 1957, at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, exploring the relationships between diet and cancer inspired an entire field of epidemiological inquiry.
Dr. Graham lived his personal life with the same passion and dedication he gave to his research. He was at home behind his easel or piano, teaching his three children on ski slopes from Colden, N.Y., to Cervinia, Italy, and casting knee deep in rivers across the U.S.
Caroline L. Morgan, his wife of 54 years, died in 2002. Surviving Dr. Graham are his children, daughter Robin P. and two sons, Saxon P. and Morgan G.
Those of us who were fortunate enough to know Dr. Graham personally or professionally would agree that he approached every day with a mindset that was unique and inspirational. He will be missed by many.
John Montgomery '72