STEWART GRAFF '25 TURNS 100

The school's most senior alumnus celebrated his hundredth birthday in May.

"I can say it feels good to be 100!" he told Headmaster Willy MacMullen ’78 in a recent letter. "My gratitude to Taft for guiding me through formative years. With best wishes to the school."

A longtime author, Graff wrote several biographies for the Dell Yearling series, many along with his wife Polly, including the lives of Helen Keller, George Washington, Hernando Cortes, John Paul Jones, and many others.

When Graff came to Taft in 1921, Horace Taft was headmaster, Harley Roberts taught Latin, McIntosh taught history-as did Jocko Reardon. The Warren House was standing where Charles Phelps Taft Hall is now. Mac House and Congdon House did not exist.

Graff spent four years at Taft, where he wrote for the Papyrus, before going on to Harvard.

Other major events the year of Graff's graduation from Taft: F. Scott Fitzgerald published The Great Gatsby and Adolf Hitler published Mein Kampf. The first issue of the New Yorker is published, John Scopes is indicted for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution, Chrysler corporation is founded, and New York becomes the world's largest city, surpassing London.

S. Stewart Graff '25 celebrates his 100th birthday with his daughter, Kate.
He lives in Monroe Township, New Jersey.