William W. Graham member of Washington Post owning dynasty, took his own life Dec 20 at the age of 69

William’s dad,  Phil Graham killed himself back in 1963 when he  was publisher of the paper his own father Eugene Graham bought in 1933

Phil Graham’s wife Katharine went on to succeed her husband as the paper’s publisher for the next two decades 

The younger Graham’s suicide 54 years after his dad’s, came days after a Meryl Streep film was released about his mother

William Graham shot himself at his home in Los Angeles, Dec 20

William Graham, a member of the family that owned the Washington Post for over eighty years, died at his home of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, his brother said.
Donald Graham, a former publisher and chief executive of the national daily, told the Post that his brother passed away on Dec. 20 in Los Angeles.
The 69-year-old California based trial lawyer shot himself 54 years after his father Phil Graham, who was publisher of the newspaper for 17 years killed himself, back in 1963.
William Graham practiced as an attorney in Washington before moving to Los Angeles, where he taught trial law, according to the Washington Post. He was a prominent DC lawyer at the capital area firm of Williams & Connolly firm in Washington DC in the 1970s before he moved to Los Angeles. He then went on to teach trial law at the UCLA.

William’s mother, Katharine Graham was publisher of Washington Post, the iconic national paper at the point of the Watergate scandal when the paper led the way in the outing of the Nixon administration’s snafus

After his William grandfather Eugene Meyer bought the paper in 1933, and it stayed in the family for 80 years.
as a matter of fact both his parents, Philip Graham and Katharine Graham, at various times served as leaders of the Post. Katharine Graham was publisher when the newspaper’s coverage of Watergate helped bring down President Richard Nixon in the 1970s.
His death came days before the release of the movie “The Post,” which chronicled the newspaper’s fight with the government over the release of the Pentagon Papers. Meryl Streep plays Katharine Graham in the movie.

Washington Post publisher Phil Graham [center] and his wife Katharine in a 1956 family portrait with their children L-R- Lally, Stephen, William and Donald

Graham was active in the anti-war movement during the Vietnam era and would graduate from UCLA law school after attending Stanford, according to the Washington Post, but would later spend 20 years operating an investment firm that he founded.