LOREN GRAHAM

1933 - 2025

GRAHAM, LOREN Born on June 29, 1933, on the kitchen table, in Hymera, Indiana and delivered by his father. Loren Graham grew up to become an internationally known scholar of Russia and the Soviet Union. His specialty was the history of science. He served as a professor at Columbia University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. Graham was the author of more than 12 books, most of which dealt with studies of scientific development, principally in Russia. Why, he asked, did Paris electrify its city earlier than St. Petersburg, which had produced the first light bulbs? Answer, Russia had no infrastructure to which bulbs could be attached while Paris did. His focus was not simply on scientific novelty, but also on the social conditions that influenced discoveries. Graham also explored the intellectual and social conditions that supported or hampered such investigations. He collected some of his adventures in Russia in, "Moscow Stories." He was recognized by various honorary societies, such as American Philosophical Society, American Academy of Arts and Sciences and others. He died in Boston, on December 15, 2024, leaving his wife, Patricia Albjerg Graham; and their daughter, Marguerite Graham Peterson. Graham's childhood was spent primarily in southern Indiana, where his mother died when he was a small boy. The youngest of four sons, he lived with various relatives during his mother's extended illness and death. Like his older brothers, he attended Purdue University, majoring in Chemical Engineering, supported by U.S. Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps and commissioned as an Ensign. He served three years in the Navy, principally on destroyers in the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Graham continued his Navy affiliation for several years, retiring over his opposition to U.S. involvement in Vietnam. He entered graduate school in 1958, in Russian history at Columbia, which necessitated learning the Russian language. He became fluent while living in the dormitory for Moscow State University, while participating in one year of academic exchange between USSR and USA in 1960-61, when he wrote the first draft of his first book on the Russian Academy of Science. It also laid the basis for his second book, "Science and Philosophy in the Soviet Union," which captured the interaction among science, culture and politics, often unobserved or not understood. It was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1972. Subsequent books investigated how Russian research in biology, mathematics and other fields was always more convincing at the theoretical than the practical level. In addition to a career focused on the history and characteristics of Russian science, Graham also undertook the renovation of a 19th century lighthouse on Grand Island in Lake Superior, beginning in 1970 and assisted by his family and supportive and skilled neighbors. It soon became livable with running water but no electricity for the first 20 years. He restored the lighthouse's marine radio, connecting what had been a silent spot in Lake Superior, whose ferocious storms had terrified many and swept some to their deaths and damaged many boats. While most summers at the lighthouse, he worked on one of his Russian books, he also wrote two books about life on the island. The first, "A Face in the Rock," dealt with the original occupants, Native Americans, which was widely read by school students and the public and received considerable attention. The second retold the mysterious death of a 19th century lighthouse keeper. A Memorial Service will be held at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge, on Monday, January 27, at 4:00 pm.

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