Katharine Meyer Graham was an heir to the company, but never the heir apparent. She shared her father's interest in journalism but had no desire to take charge. Graham wrote for the San Francisco News and the family paper, then married, content to contribute an occasional column and stay home to raise her four children while her husband ran the Post.

When he died in 1963, the future of the family business was laid in her lap. Although uncertain about corporate leadership, she told the directors and executives at her first meeting, "There is another generation coming, and we intend to turn the paper over to them."

As publisher, Graham printed the Pentagon Papers and pursued the Watergate scandal. With an unblinking eye on the bottom line, she took the company public and diversified its investments. Initially at $6 a share in 1971, Post stock today is worth more than $300 a share - a record of growth unmatched by any other newspaper company.

Katharine Graham has done what she set out to do - hold onto the family business and hand it over to the next generation. But few people, let alone her successor, would put her achievements so modestly. When he was named publisher of the Washington Post, Donald Graham said, "My mother has given me everything but an easy act to follow."