Abstract
In the early 1900s Emil Graff’s widowed mother moved her family to Omaha from rural Nebraska. She wanted Emil to get a good education,and Creighton University offered it free at that time. Emil attended Creighton Prep, and then Creighton University (both institutions lived together on this campus at that time). Emil Graff graduated with a Bachelor of
Arts degree in 1922. Three years later,he earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Detroit. In 1938,he became an assistant manager of mortgage loans
for the Washington National Insurance Company in Evanston, Illinois. He remained with the company, becoming vice president and treasurer in 1963, and then serving on the Board of Directors until his retirement in 1967. Throughout his successful career in the insurance industry, and as a business investor, Emil praised the education he received at Creighton University. He and his wife, Amelia Bunbury Graff, were active in civic affairs in the Chicago community. They shared a love of art and a keen interest in
their parish and Catholic charities. The couple had no children. When Emil died in 1986, Amelia expressed a desire to establish an endowed chair in theology at Creighton. She wanted to leave something in perpetuity in
memory of her husband. She wrote, “Emil loved Creighton and never tired of telling what he owed to the University. He always told me, ‘Don’t forget to take care of Creighton.’” Amelia resolved to provide solid help for the school that helped Emil on his way. Upon her death in 1994, provisions were made to establish the Amelia B. and Emil G. Graff Faculty Chair in Catholic Theology.