11/19/2014 - Dale Graham

A Celebration of life for Dale Graham, age 85, of Fayette, was Saturday, November 8 2014 in Fayette.

Burial will be in Crawford, Nebraska at a later date.

Dale Edward Graham was born in Chappell, NE on November 18,1929. The son of Laurence and Ruby (Smith) Graham, he grew up in Chappell, graduating from Deuel County High School in 1947. His education continued at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln where he received his Pharmacy degree in 1952.

At the University, Dale met Maureen King whom he married on March 3,1953 in Crawford, NE. They resided in Baltimore, MD while Dale served with the U. S. Army Counter-Intelligence Corps and later lived in Hot Springs, SD, Mitchell, NE and Harrison, NE where he owned Sioux Drug. Coming to Missouri in 1961, Dale worked at the MU Med Center and managed the Katz Drug Store in the Hotel Phillips in Kansas City.

The family moved to Fayette in 1963 when Dale became the partner of Thomas Alsop in Alsop and Graham Pharmacy. He became sole owner of the business in 1969 and operated it until his retirement on December 31, 1995. He held the Gold Certificate from the Missouri Board of Pharmacy for 50 years of service to the profession.

Though photography may have been Dale’s avocation, it may be the most widely known of his accomplishments. Interested in photography from age 12, Dale honed his talents as a photographer over the years and produced a body of work for which he was well known and for which he received considerable notoriety. A student of Ansel Adams, he forged a friendship with Ansel that lasted until Ansel's death. His collected work includes images from the vast expanses of the American west to the charm of the creeks and woodlands of rural Howard County. His award winning photograph “Windmill on the Prairie” hangs in the New York Museum of Art today. His work is also part of the permanent collection of the Shelton Gallery at the University of Nebraska, The Museum of Nebraska Art, the Ashby-Hodge Gallery of American Art at Central Methodist University, the Memorial Library and Art Gallery in Chappell, NE., and at the College of Pharmacy at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha. Selected photographs also appear in two books; “Photographs of the Pine Ridge Area and Ft. Robinson, Nebraska” and ”Chappell-My Home Town” which he authored. His photographs hang on walls in 5 continents today. Dale was a Guest Lecturer for many Photography Classes at the nationally known, University of Missouri School of Journalism for many years.

Dale had a special love for the Pine Ridge and Northwestern Nebraska, his thousands of photographs of the area surrounding Crawford and Harrison will never be duplicated again on film. His photograph of “Pants Butte” he considered one of his greatest accomplishments, although it has rarely been viewed by the public and is almost 60 years old.

Dale Graham passed from this life at his home in Fayette on Wednesday morning, October 29, 2014.

He leaves his wife, Maureen, children Tom and Diann, three grandchildren, three great grandchildren, and a host of friends.