Lee Graff: Manufacturer, Philanthropist
Lee Graff, founder of Graff Californiawear, died on March 8. She was 94.
A pillar of Los Angeles’ fashion community, Graff is known both for the women’s apparel company she founded with her husband and for her tireless efforts on behalf of many local charities, including City of Hope, whose campus includes several buildings bearing the Graff name.
“She was a driving force in the apparel industry and the most philanthropic person I have ever met,” said Ilse Metchek, executive director of the California Fashion Association, who met Graff in 1957. Metchek said while Graff was a savvy business woman, she was selfless when it came to her work for organizations such as City of Hope. “She didn’t do it for self-aggrandizement; it was truly for charity,” Metchek said.
“[Graff was] a fun, hard worker who demanded the best and got what she wanted— I loved her,” said Ann Davis, owner of Ann Davis Textiles and past president of the Textile Association of Los Angeles.
Davis and Graff met in 1980 when Davis joined the board at City of Hope.
“Lee was my mentor at City of Hope who became a very dear friend whose advice I not only sought, but I took,” Davis said. “I was proud to be associated with her.”
CeCe Robman, a longtime City of Hope supporter, recalled that she and Graff were pregnant when they met.
“Our children are 60, so I’ve known her longer than that,” said Robman, whose father, Lou Tabak, owner of Tabak of California and co-founder with Graff’s husband, Seymour, of Merchants Bank, introduced her to Graff. “We worked side by side at City of Hope and became very close over the years.”
Graff was born in Colorado but was raised in Los Angeles, where she and her husband founded women’s sportswear company Graff Californiawear in 1933. After her husband died in 1964, she stepped into the role of chairman of the board, a position she held until she died.
In 1970, she joined the board at City of Hope, beginning a 35-year history of service to the cancer research, treatment and education facility in Duarte, Calif. She became vice president of the board in 1975 and was named honorary chairman for life. In 1987, she was named to the center’s Gallery of Achievements. In 1995, she received City of Hope’s Spirit of Life Award.
Among the buildings on the City of Hope campus named for Graff and her husband is the Lee Graff Medical and Scientific Library, which was dedicated in 1984. Two years ago, the Lee Graff Foundation made another contribution to upgrade the library’s computer systems. A building in the biology research complex was named for Graff’s husband, who served as City of Hope president in the 1960s, and the Graff Garden Plaza was created with a gift made on Lee Graff’s behalf.
Several other local organizations benefited from Graff’s generosity, including the National Conference of Christians and Jews and the Holy Family and Inner City Arts programs for inner-city children. She was also active in the Coalition of Apparel Industries, the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Music Center of Los Angeles County.
She received an honorary doctorate degree in humanities from Santa Clara University and, in 1991, was the first woman to receive the Award for Business Excellence from the University of Southern California’s school of business administration.
Graff is survived by her daughter, Linda; her grandchildren, Victoria and Phil Schaffer and Scott and Paige Morielli; her son-in-law, Franco Morielli; her sister-in-law, Brigid Ceretto; her niece, Victoria Ceretto-Slotto; and her great-grandchildren, Elizabeth and Rebecca.
The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Lee Graff Memorial Fund at City of Hope.
