Katharine Graham, one of the great figures in American society, was chairman of the executive committee of The Washington Post Company from September 1993 until hear death in July 2001. She was chairman of the board from May 1973 to September 1993. She was chief executive officer of the company from May 1973 to May 1991 and served as president from 1963 to 1973. She was publisher of The Washington Post newspaper from 1969 to 1979. Mrs. Graham was born on June 16, 1917, in New York City. She was a daughter of Agnes Ernst Meyer and Eugene Meyer, who purchased The Washington Post at a bankruptcy sale in 1933. After attending Vassar for two years, Mrs. Graham graduated from the University of Chicago in 1938. She worked as a reporter for the San Francisco News and later joined the staff of The Washington Post, working in the editorial and circulation departments. Philip L. Graham, Mrs. Graham's husband, was publisher of The Washington Post from 1946 until 1961 and president of The Washington Post Company from 1947 until his death in 1963. Mrs. Graham had four children: Elizabeth Weymouth and Donald, William and Stephen Graham. Donald Graham is chairman and chief executive officer of the company and chairman of The Washington Post. Mrs. Graham was a co-chairman of the International Herald Tribune. She was vice chairman of the board of the Urban Institute and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Overseas Development Council. Mrs. Graham was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a board member of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. She was a past chairman and president of the American Newspaper Publishers Association and a former board member of the Associated Press. Mrs. Graham was the author of Personal History, a memoir for which she received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.