Alumni Hall of Fame
Charles J. Graham
Charles J. Graham is a native of LaSalle-Peru who earned both undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of Illinois, including a Ph.D. in Political Science. While a graduate student he married Bonnie Ure whom he met at the Wesley Foundation.
Dr. Graham spent 17 years as a faculty member in the University of Wisconsin System at River Falls, Whitewater and Madison. In 1971 he was appointed President of Saint Cloud State University in Minnesota. He was then named as President of Hamline University in Saint Paul in 1981; he served as president until 1987. After leaving Hamline he served a year as Senior Vice President of the Minnesota Private College Council and Fund, a year as Interim President of Metropolitan State University, and then headed the Office of International Programs for the Chancellor’s Office of the Minnesota State University System. This assignment involved the establishment of a campus of the Minnesota State University System in Akita, Japan.
President Graham has had three assignments in Washington, D.C. with the Navy Department, the Department of Education and as a Legislative Assistant to Senator William Proxmire of Wisconsin. In retirement Dr. Graham has served as President of the Rotary Club of Saint Paul, of the Twin Cities Institute for Talented Youth and on the Boards of the Indianhead Council of the Boy Scouts of America and the Friends of the Minneapolis Public Library.