Born in York, England, in 1942, Graham emigrated to Canada in 1956 with his family and met his wife Marie in high school. They were married in 1963 and have three children, and six grand children. Graham articled in Edmonton with one of the root firms of KPMG, and obtained the professional designation of Chartered Accountant in 1966. His professional career spanned forty three years. During the first four years he worked in industry, employed by corporations rather than a public accounting office. He held financial management positions in the chemical industry in Edmonton and Montreal (Chemcell Limited), and the aviation and plastics industry (Northwest Industries Ltd.). A strong desire (calling?) to live in the country moved Graham and Marie to Westlock in 1971, and he returned to public accounting. In January of 2009, he retired as senior partner of the firm Clews, Shoemaker, Viney and Friesen. Graham and Marie also owned and operated a farm in the Westlock area, small by Alberta standards: a cow/calf operation with about sixty cows. Over the years, he has also operated a home manufacturing plant building log homes in some of the remotest parts of Alberta, and served as co-chairman of a publicly traded gold company (after a bitter proxy fight). He served seventeen years with the Canadian Armed Forces Reserve, retiring as a captain on reaching the age of fifty-five. Graham has also been quite active in the community, serving on the Tawatinaw Valley Ski Board, the Westlock Library Board, the Westlock Drama Society, the Westlock Scholarship Board, the Westlock Cultural Arts Society, and as a cub master in the Boy Scouts of Canada. He has also served as president of the local Provincial Progressive Conservative Association, the Army Cadet League of Alberta (also on the national board of governors), and the Rotary Club of Westlock. Memberships past and/or present include the Rotary Club, the Edmonton Branch of the Winston Churchill Society, Westlock Independence Network (for the disabled), and Mensa Canada.