Quick research shows there are approximately 256 Richard Graber’s in the United States. One Richard Graber is a Hungarian dancer who recently moved from Ohio to Texas. The most famous Richard Graber is the Wisconsin-born ambassador to the Czeck Republic. I believe he was head of the Republican Party of Wisconsin and of Czeck descent, and was chosen for the ambassador position by President George W. Bush.
Richard Graber – a personal history
As Richard Graber born in Ormskirk, Lancashire, United Kingdom, I am technically John Richard Graber IV. I’ve been a programmer, developer and trainer for most of my twenty years out of school. Moved to the United States with my parents when I was 13 yrs old.
My father is Welsh-born John Richard Graber, Master Mariner. My Dad John spent almost 20 years of his life at sea, delivering cargo to and from the west African coast. Following this, he worked at company headquarters for four years until the implementation of containers caused shippers worldwide to chaffe at the restriction of a TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit). My Dad travelled to Japan to better manage the shipment of Japanese goods, which were beginning to grow rapidly due to the expansion of K-Mart.
My grandfather, is South-Shields, Tyneside British-born John Richard Graber (“Jack”) who was a Colonel in the British Army in WWI and served in the Royal Bicycle Corps in the Dardanelles and Seychelles. He was also part of the British Expeditionary Force that went to stop the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917. Following the Great War, my grandfather returned to Durham University and completed his degree in geology. He worked for Shell – Royal Dutch Petroleum and helped discover oil in Persia (Iraq). Upon his return to England, he and his wife moved to Bangor, North Wales. There, Mr. Graber became acting headmaster of Bangor Central School, a position he held until his death in 1954. My grandfather was an active mason. He died quite a young man, leaving my grandmother, Vera, a widow at age 46. She never remarried and died in 1991.
His father, my great-grandfather, was United States born John Richard Graber. Born Charleston, SC, 1865. Wow. Right at the end of the Civil War. His father John William Graber from Bremerhaven, Germany. His occupation is listed as inn-keeper on the birth certificate, and that is the only information we have about him.
