Gene Swann Graham (August 26, 1924 – May 24, 1982) was an American journalist and educator who was associated for many years with the Nashville Tennessean and with the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. He was a co-winner of the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 1962. John Seigenthaler, former publisher of the Tennessean and a founding editorial director of USA Today, described Graham as "a multi-talented journalist, a first rate reporter, a wonderful cartoonist believe it or not, and also a fine editorialist." David Halberstam, a fellow Pulitzer Prize winner and veteran of the Tennessean, called Graham a "great reporter." Early life and education Graham was born in Murray, Kentucky. His parents were Carmon McWade Graham and Opal (Swann) Graham. After serving as a pilot in the U.S. Navy from 1943 to 1945, he attended Murray State College, from which he received a B.S. degree in 1948. Career Journalism After graduating from Murray State, Graham went to work at the Nashville Tennessean, where he reported on city, county, state, and federal government news from 1948 to 1964. He also contributed editorial cartoons, some of which are now in the special collections of the University of Tennessee. He covered a trial that "marked the first time since Tennessee's Reconstruction that a white man had been found guilty and imprisoned for slaying an African American." After John F. Kennedy's assassination, Graham wrote in tribute: "He could never hide his humor.... He struggled for a dead pan but couldn't hold it; the devilish twinkle of his eye and the quirk of a mouth tempted to grin betrayed his forthcoming quips…[Now] the devilish eye, the betraying quirk of the mouth are gone. And nothing is funny about their departure." Academia He was a visiting lecturer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1964 to 1965, an associate professor of journalism at the same institution from 1965 to 1971, and a full professor there from 1972 to 1975. Gene Gilmore, a colleague of Graham's at Urbana-Champaign, described Graham as "very popular with the students" there and said that Graham had been "awarded instructor of the year honors more than once while there, recognition of his unique ability to relate to his students." From 1966 to 1970, he was also a training consultant at The Boston Globe. In 1969–70, he was a seminar leader at the American Press Institute at Columbia University and a