Wife of Clinton’s Gordon Graham dies

Native of England became deeply involved as parent, volunteer while in town

By Karen Nugent TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF






CLINTON— Most Clintonians know of the Rev. Gordon Graham, and many who knew him also recall the charming British woman who became his wife.

Sadly, Barbara Graham last week lost a long struggle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

She died Thursday in Newcastle, Northern Ireland, where the couple moved several years ago.


Mrs. Graham, 72, lived with Rev. Graham in his hometown of Clinton from 1970 through 1986, according to her daughter, Rachel Evans, who lives in Somerville.

During that time, Rev. Graham, who became an Anglican priest in the Church of Ireland in 1997, worked as an environmental regulator for the state Department of Environmental Management, and for the Metropolitan District Commission.

He was also a teacher, served on the School Committee, and founded Clinton High School’s first Irish student exchange program.

A few years later, in 1985, Rev. Graham established the Lillian and George Graham Trust in honor of his parents. The trust funds the popular exchange program.

The program was Rev. Graham’s endeavor to bring together students from British Northern Ireland, where his father’s roots were, and the Republic of Ireland, his mother’s home country.

His mother took the path of many other new Clintonians, leaving County Mayo in the west of Ireland for her new home.

The exchange program stipulates that students from both countries come to town.

Narrowing the divide between England and Ireland was already demonstrated in his own life, when he married Mrs. Graham — who started life as Barbara Sutton in Southampton, England.

Leading as colorful a life as her husband — perhaps more so — she served in Vienna with the British high commissioner, Lord Harold Caccia, and then accompanied him as his personal secretary in his next post as British ambassador to the U.S., Ms. Evans said.

Ms. Evans said her parents met at an Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C.

After marrying Rev. Graham and moving to Clinton, Mrs. Graham, according to her daughter, raised three children here and participated in church and civic activities.

She was a trustee of the Weeks Fund, an educational foundation that brings lectures and music to town, and was in the choir and vestry of the Church of the Good Shepherd.

She continued to work, and retired from Harvard Medical School, where she was an administrator in the social medicine department and an editor of an international journal on medical anthropology.

After moving to Northern Ireland, she remained active and served on the Boards of Age Concern (similar to Councils on Aging in the U.S.) and with a group called Protestants and Catholics Encounter, and sang in three chorale groups.

Mrs. Graham had a degree in languages from Royal Holloway College in London, her daughter said.

Nancy J. Gerlach of Clinton, who worked with Rev. Graham on the exchange program, described Mrs. Graham as a “lovely, lovely woman.”

Mrs. Graham’s funeral will be held Jan. 13 in St. John’s Church in Newcastle.

Contact Karen Nugent by e-mail at knugent@telegram.com.