William A. Graham IV, award-winning businessman, philanthropist, and former co-owner of The Inquirer, has died at 83

William A. Graham IV, 83, of Gladwyne, former owner, chairman, and chief executive officer of the Graham Co., former co-owner of The Inquirer, celebrated career builder, philanthropist, volunteer, and Hall of Fame wrestler, died Wednesday, Jan. 29, of complications from pneumonia at Bryn Mawr Hospital.

Born in Philadelphia and reared in Lafayette Hill and Flourtown in Montgomery County, Mr. Graham assumed majority control of the Graham Co. in 1972, 12 years after his father founded it, and transformed the firm into an insurance agency and brokerage powerhouse. He expanded the staff from six to 180, made it one of the 50 largest commercial agencies in the United States, and grew its estimated worth to $230 million by 2017.

He provided business insurance, employee benefits, surety brokerage, and other services to organizations in high-risk industries such as construction, real estate, manufacturing, and health and human services. His clients were in Philadelphia, New York, Washington, and elsewhere across the country, and included contractors working on the Comcast towers in Center City and the Goethals Bridge in New York.

He employed engineers, lawyers, and former military officers, and the Graham Co. flourished for more than 50 years due largely to its low fixed costs and strong cash flow. In 2004, he told The Inquirer about his disdain for local government contracts because so many were awarded through political favoritism. But, as other firms left Philadelphia for the suburbs, he stayed in his high-rise headquarters near City Hall.

“Bill had such an incredible impact in so many ways,” said Brian Tierney, former co-owner and publisher of The Inquirer and Mr. Graham’s longtime friend and colleague. “He was a brilliant business guy and so kind.”

He created a business culture he called the Graham Way and nurtured his employees to long-term careers, sometimes for life, through continuing education programs and empowerment. In 2010, The Inquirer placed the Graham Co. first among mid-sized firms in its Top 100 Work Places survey.

“Bill has always been the hardest-working guy in this organization.”

He could have sold the company himself for hundreds of millions of dollars in 2017. Instead, he created an employee stock-ownership plan that reduced his tax and left the new employee-owners able to sell the firm later for big profits.

“For me, money was never what it was about,” he told The Inquirer in 2012 when he stepped down as CEO and president but remained as chairman. “My wife said, if I ever retire, she’ll divorce me.”

In 2023, the employee-owners sold the Graham Co. to the Marsh McLennan Agency for what industry observers speculated then was around $375 million. “There’s a tremendous amount of gratitude in our organization toward Bill Graham,” Kenneth Ewell, Graham’s successor as president, told The Inquirer in 2017.

John Doyle, president and CEO of Marsh McLennan, said last week: “Bill was a legend in our industry and an inspiration to so many.”

» READ MORE: Workers become millionaires in sale of employee-owned Graham Co.

In 2006, Mr. Graham contributed the largest investment, $31 million, to a joint purchase of The Inquirer, and joined Tierney and others in operating Philadelphia Media Holdings LLC through 2010. He made important financial and systemic contributions to that ownership group and subsequent owners, Tierney said.

“He was a fighter and tenacious as all get out,” Tierney said.

He was a star wrestler at William Penn Charter School and Bucknell University, and a lifelong wresting enthusiast. He and his wife, Fran, donated more than $5 million in 2004 to reinstate the wrestling program at Bucknell, and their other financial contributions to the school resulted in an endowment to support women’s sports and the building of Graham Field for field hockey and women’s lacrosse, and the Graham Building that houses wrestling and student health centers.

They also funded the new Graham Athletics and Wellness Center at Penn Charter in 2021. He served on boards, earned many awards, and was inducted into the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association Hall of Fame in 2011, the Pennsylvania chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2017, and the Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame in 2018.

“We hope that Bill Graham’s leadership and financial support can serve as a model for other institutions seeking to improve their programs for both male and female students.”

In a 2019 blog post on grahamco.com, he said: “When I look back at the experiences that have greatly shaped my life and my career, nothing has influenced the person and businessman I have become more than the sport of wrestling.”

William Adolphus Graham IV was born March 1, 1941. He was diagnosed with diabetes as a boy, and some doctors did not expect him to live past 15. Instead, he flourished and years later became a board member and major investor in the Animas Corp. and its diabetes supply business.

He played high school football and was a senior captain on the Penn Charter and Bucknell wrestling teams. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1962 and started his career as a sales representative for his father’s insurance agency.

He met Frances Robertson through a mutual friend, and they married in 1977, and had a son, William A. Graham V, and a daughter, Laura. They lived in Center City briefly before moving to Gladwyne.

» READ MORE: How 'Fluffy' the secretary became an owner of the $54 million Graham Co.

Mr. Graham enjoyed reading mysteries, playing golf, and riding his Harley-Davidson motorcycles to unwind. He and his wife traveled to China, Europe, the Middle East, the Caribbean, and elsewhere, and spent idyllic days with family and friends in Avalon.

He took his children skiing and scuba diving, and built a sandbox when they were young. On Saturday mornings, he treated everyone to pancakes, bacon, and eggs.

“He could be really sweet,” his wife said. “He was an out-of-the-box thinker. Whatever he did, he went full-bore into it.”

In addition to his wife and children, Mr. Graham is survived by four granddaughters, a sister, a brother, and other relatives.

Services were Friday, Feb. 7.

Donations in his name may be made to the wrestling programs at Bucknell University, Gift Processing, 301 Market St., Suite 2, Lewisburg, Pa. 17837; and William Penn Charter School, 3000 W. Schoolhouse Ln., Philadelphia, Pa. 19144.