Dr. Art Graham died of respiratory failure on April 16, 2018, at the age of 85. His family was at his side in UCHealth Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs, reading scripture and singing his favorite hymns.

The son of Roy Arthur Graham and Velma Treva Nunnelly, Art was born in Pueblo, Colorado on December 16, 1932. He attended Pueblo’s Lincoln Grade School and Keating Junior High, and graduated from Central High School in 1950.

Art worked at the Pueblo Steel Mill from 1949 – 1953 and attended Pueblo Junior College after finishing high school. In the spring of 1951 he met Myrna Loy Beck, a student nurse at St. Mary-Corwin Hospital. Art and Myrna were engaged in September of 1952, and they were married in Pueblo on December 19, shortly after Myrna’s graduation from nursing school.

In the first two years of their marriage, Art completed pre-med studies at Denver University, while Myrna worked as a registered nurse at Children’s Hospital. Art was a medical student at the University of Colorado School of Medicine from 1954 – 1958, and Myrna served as an Operating Room Nurse at the Denver Veterans’ Hospital.

Art entered the Army after completing a surgical internship at the University of California Hospital in San Francisco. He served as an Army physician for over nine years, many of those in the Panama Canal Zone. Art attained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and earned the Army Commendation Medal.

After his honorable discharge in 1968, Art and Myrna returned to Colorado, where Art joined the Pueblo Radiological Group. Art and Myrna were called to Tampa, Florida in June of 1972, where Art served as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Radiology at the University of South Florida College of Medicine, and as Chief of Radiology Services at the Tampa VA Hospital.

After twelve years in Tampa, Art was called to the Central Offices of the US Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington, DC. He became Director of VA Radiology Services, then Deputy Director of Operations. During his seven years at the VA Central Offices (1984 – 1991), Art also served intervals as Acting Chief Medical Director and Acting Medical Inspector.

Art’s final assignment with Veterans Affairs was Chief of Staff at the VA Medical Center in Tacoma, Washington. After Art retired in 1994, he and Myrna again returned to Colorado, this time to Colorado Springs. They joined the Central Christian Church, where Art served as Elder for several years.

Art Graham is survived by his wife and three daughters: Sandra Loy Graham, a physical therapist at the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage; Cynthia Graham Brittain, a Chemistry Teaching Professor at the University of Rhode Island; and Cheryl Leigh Graham, a Special Education Severe Service Needs Paraprofessional at Explorer Elementary School in Colorado Springs. Art is also survived by three grandsons; and three great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 2:00 p.m. Saturday, April 21, 2018 at Shrine of Remembrance “America the Beautiful” Chapel, 1730 East Fountain Boulevard, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80910. Private Inurnment will take place at Shrine of Remembrance Mausoleum, Veteran’s Honor Court Columbarium.

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