Lawrence S. Graver, 78
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. â€' Lawrence Stanley Graver, 78, of 117 Forest Road died Sunday, Feb. 28, 2010, at home, after a long illness. He was a longtime English professor and the John Hawley Roberts Professor of English Emeritus at Williams College.
Born in New York City on Dec. 6, 1931, a son of Louis Graver and Rose Pearlstein Graver Dinnerstein, he grew up in an immigrant family in the South Bronx, lost his father at a young age, and was headed toward being an accountant when his stepfather, Abraham Dinnerstein, noticed his love of literature and encouraged him to follow his passion. Mr. Graver received his bachelor's degree from the City College of New York in 1954 and his master's degree and doctorate at the University of California at Berkeley in 1959 and 1961, respectively.
An Army veteran, he served during the Korean War.
Professor Graver began his teaching career at the University of California at Los Angeles and, in 1964, joined Williams' English department. He was considered an important figure in the study of 19th- and 20th-century English and American literature, with a special interest in contemporary fiction and drama, and in American Jewish literature. Beyond his academic work, he was a productive writer of books and reviews that brought his scholarship to a wider popular audience. He was a frequent contributor to The New York Times Book Review and his 1989 review of "The Remains of the Day" was instrumental in turning what was then an obscure novel by a little-known author, Kazuo Ishiguro, into an international sensation.
His own 1997 book, "An Obsession With Anne Frank: Meyer Levin and the Diary," was widely acclaimed for unearthing an extraordinary untold story about the battle over dramatizing Frank's life. Mr. Graver set this story against the larger dynamics of the American response to the Holocaust. He also wrote important books on the playwright Samuel Beckett, and on authors Joseph Conrad and Carson McCullers. An annual drama award is being established at the college in his name.
He was also widely known as an extraordinarily gifted teacher, appreciated as much for his kindness, humor, and generosity as for the keen intelligence, human insight, and wit he brought to both the classroom and the literature he taught, according to students and colleagues. He had a powerful influence on generations of students at Williams College. The same qualities that made him so remarkable a teacher and author also made him a treasured husband, father, grandfather and friend. He will be greatly missed.
He and his wife, the former Suzanne Levy, whom he met in Latin class at Berkeley, were married in Queens, N.Y., on Jan. 28, 1960.
Besides his wife, he leaves two daughters, Ruth Graver and her husband, Michael Grunebaum, of New York City and Elizabeth Graver and her husband, James Pingeon, of Lincoln; a stepbrother, Leonard Dinnerstein, and a stepsister, Rita Kabaskalian, and four grandchildren, Sam and Jacob Grunebaum and Chloe and Sylvie Graver Pingeon.
FUNERAL NOTICE â€' Services for professor Graver will take place Wednesday, March 3, at 12:30 p.m. at the Williams College Jewish Religious Center, 24 Stetson Court. Burial will be private in College Cemetery and a college service will be held in April.
Memorial donations can be made to Williams College or CurePSP, Executive Plaza III, 11350 McCormick Road, Suite 906, Hunt Valley, MD 21031 or www.psp.org or through Flynn & Dagnoli-Montagna Home for Funerals, 521 West Main St., North Adams, MA 01247.