Dr. Dee Graham

Services for Dr. Dee Graham will be held on Monday, December 7, 2020, at 10:00 a.m. from McClain-Hays Chapel with Rev. Chris Shelton officiating. Burial will follow in the Morrow Cemetery in Neshoba County. Visitation will be held on Monday from 9:00 a. m. until time of service. McClain-Hays Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Dee MacDonald Graham, of Walnut Creek, California, died peacefully in his sleep on Saturday morning, November 21, 2020, at the age of 93. He is survived by his wife of over 33 years, Ruth Graham, his stepdaughter, Lori; six sons, Dee Jr. and wife Carol, Ken and wife Michele, Dick and wife Helen, Tim and wife Shirley, Robert, Michael and wife Lisa, and one daughter, Faye and husband Jesse Biddle; 19 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife of 38 years, Marjory (Cox) Graham. Dr. Graham was born at home in Dixon, Mississippi, the second son and sixth child of Homer Yancey and Little Pearl (Nicholson) Graham. He graduated from East Central Junior College (now East Central Community College) at the age of 17, and then lied about his age to enlist in the Army during WW2. He served at Oak Ridge, TN, and Los Alamos, NM, as an MP on the Manhattan Project, of which he was justifiably proud. After the war, he and his new bride moved to Mississippi where he received a Bachelor’s Degree from Mississippi State University. In Starkville, Dee and Marjory welcomed their first son, Dee, Jr. Dr. Graham went on to earn his PhD in Microbiology from Iowa State, where second son, Ken, was born. Then came post-doctoral work on blue cheese at Clemson A&M, (now Clemson University) in South Carolina, where the family added sons Dick, Tim, and Bob. From the Clemson University website: “In October 1953, some 2500 pounds of blue cheese were curing in the depths of Stumphouse Mountain Tunnel. The production was directed by D.M. Graham, a native of Mississippi and a recent Ph.D. from Iowa State College. He joined the Clemson Dairy staff in August 1953 to initiate the manufacture of blue cheese and carry on other dairy products research. Indications were that the product would be ready for market in April or May 1954. The Clemson Dairy Department was pleasantly anticipating the time when cheese connoisseurs over the country could again enjoy the tangy, piquant flavor of Clemson Blue Cheese.” To this day, “Clemson Blue Cheese is an artisan cheese, made the old fashioned way.” In 1958, Dr. Graham, Marjory, and five sons moved to Greenville, IL, where he led the research lab for Pet Milk, Inc., and Marjory gave birth to their only daughter, Faye, and sixth son, Michael. At Pet, Dr. Graham developed the processes for making the diet drink, Sego, and canned ready-to-use infant formula. For the latter project he demonstrated the palatability of the canned baby formula to skeptical board members by bringing his infant son into the meeting, the baby quietly drinking from a can with a bottle nipple attached. In the early 1960's Dr. Graham attended the Executive Education program at Arden House, Columbia University in New York, where he received a certificate in business administration. He went on to chair the Food Science and Nutrition Department at the University of Missouri, Columbia, and head the Research and Development Lab for Del Monte in Walnut Creek, CA. After his retirement from Del Monte, he and his second wife, Ruth, founded R and D Enterprises, a company dedicated to developing and promoting the use of ozone for food processing and sanitation. Dr. Graham served as the Electric Power Research Institute’s Agriculture and Food Technology Alliance Office manager, which coordinated efforts for several years to review the use of ozone as a food safety additive and to obtain formal federal regulatory approval. Graham chaired the EPRI Expert Panel that affirmed ozone as GRAS (Generally Regarded as Safe) in 1997, and he was instrumental in obtaining funding for the Food Additive Petition (FAP). He helped write the FAP, which was approved in 2001. Dr. Graham was a 32nd degree Mason, a deacon in the Presbyterian Church, a Scout Master, active in Marriage Encounter, and held numerous positions in the Institute of Food Technologists and the American Dairy Science Association. He was an avid gardener, expert jelly and ice cream maker, wine connoisseur, and frequent attendee at the Neshoba County Fair in Philadelphia, Mississippi, of which his father, Homer Yancey Graham, was an original founder.