Donald Edward Graham (born April 22, 1945) is the majority owner and chairman of Graham Holdings Company. He was formerly the publisher of The Washington Post (1979–2000) and later was the lead independent director of Facebook's board of directors (2009–2015). Early life His parents were Katharine Graham (née Meyer), later a publisher of The Washington Post, and her husband, Philip Graham. His maternal grandmother was Agnes Meyer. His maternal grandfather, Eugene Meyer, bought the bankrupt Post shortly after stepping down as Chairman of the Federal Reserve in mid-1933. Graham's mother Katherine Meyer was baptized as Lutheran as a child, as her mother was Lutheran. Her father was Jewish. Katherine (Meyer) Graham later attended an Episcopal church. His father Philip Graham was also raised as a Lutheran. Graham graduated from the private St. Albans School. He attended Harvard College. In 1965, he was elected president of The Harvard Crimson, the college's daily. After graduation in 1966, Graham volunteered for military service. He served in the Vietnam War from 1967 to 1968, as part of the United States Army 1st Cavalry Division. From January 1969 to June 1970, Graham joined the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia as a patrolman. The Post Eugene Meyer, Graham's maternal grandfather, bought The Washington Post at a bankruptcy sale in 1933. Graham's father Philip was publisher of The Washington Post from 1946 until 1961, and president of the Washington Post Company from 1947 until his death in 1963. Graham’s mother Katharine took over the newspaper as publisher after her husband's death. She led The Washington Post newspaper for more than two decades, overseeing its most famous period, the Watergate coverage that helped expose misdeeds of President Richard Nixon, who was persuaded to resign. She has been widely described as one of the most powerful American women of the 20th century. In 1971, Donald Graham joined The Washington Post as a reporter. He held a variety of news and business positions at the Post and Newsweek (until 2010, it was owned by The Washington Post Company), until the newspaper was sold in 2013 to Jeff Bezos. Graham was elected to the board of the company in September 1974; in 1976 he was appointed as executive vice president and general manager of the Post. Graham became publisher of The Washington Post in 1979, succeeding his mother. She retained her corporate positions of chairman of the board