Met actors, directors in his transportation job
Roger S. Graham was the kind of guy who didn’t take much guff and who today might be called “transparent,” though he probably wouldn’t appreciate the modern nomenclature.
“He was just a tell-it-likeit-is person — he didn’t really have a filter,” said his son Roger Graham II of Austin, Texas. “People respected him because he was really down-to-earth.”
A transportation manager for the film industry and a volunteer firefighter, Mr. Graham also had some fabulous stories about celebrities after working around actors and directors.
“He had a lot of insight about who was nice and who wasn’t,” his son said.
Mr. Graham, 68, of Greenville, Mercer County, died May 10 of complications from diabetes and congestive heart failure.
Though he was born in Youngstown, Ohio, he spent most of his life in the South Hills, graduating from Bethel Park High School in 1968.
As a teen, he went to work for Haddad’s Service Station in Pleasant Hills, where he met Cissie Watson.
“She was working at the Tastee Freez next door to Haddad’s and dad would go there for lunch, and that’s how they met,” their son said.
The couple were married in February 1969. Mrs. Graham died in 1992.
When Haddad’s expanded into production rentals, such as cast trailers for film sets, Mr. Graham became a service manager for the company and traveled across the country delivering rentals.
He became good friends with David Haddad, the current president of the company, who began working at his family’s company as a teen.
“He was there when I was in high school and he taught me how to drive,” Mr. Haddad recalled of Mr. Graham. “We both grew up working there, and he worked his way from mechanic to a manager.”
Mr. Haddad also remembered him as a prankster.
“He was a funny guy, and he would torture me as the boss’s son,” he said. “One time he had me move a car in the lot and I got in the car and there were no brakes. So, I’m freaking out and he wheels around the tow truck and stops me from driving onto the highway just in time.”
In the late 1990s, Mr. Graham relocated to Orlando, Fla., to manage a new Haddad’s branch office.
“A lot of movies were being made in Orlando and my dad ran that office for about 10 years until he left Haddad’s and worked directly as a freelancer for studios,” Mr. Graham’s son said.
Mr. Graham moved to Louisiana for several years and continued working in the film industry until Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, prompting him to move back to Bethel Park.
His son said Mr. Graham had many fond memories of meeting celebrities, including Cuba Gooding Jr., Russell Crowe and Anthony Hopkins.
“He had so many stories I couldn’t possibly recount them all,” he said.
Mr. Hopkins was as gentlemanly as most would expect from the British actor, but some others “were total jerks,” he said.
“He had memorabilia from almost every movie that he worked on,” his son said.
From his early years as a mechanic, Mr. Graham had a lifelong interest in tinkering and was able to fix anything with a motor, his son said.
“If it was on wheels, he could drive it,” his son said. “And there wasn’t anything he couldn’t fix.”
Mr. Graham loved cars and motorcycles, and drove across the country on his Harley-Davidson. He even owned a tiny Smart car, his son said.
“There was never a trip for him that was too long,” he said. “He would drive anywhere.”
His father also spent many years as a firefighter with the Bethel Park Volunteer Fire Company.
“I can remember sitting there in my pajamas, seeing him in the firetruck when I was little,” he said. “When he heard the alarm, he would throw on his shoes and run out the door.”
Mr. Graham also had a lifelong interest in law enforcement, earning a bachelor’s degree in criminology from the University of Pittsburgh in 1998.
“After my mom died, he just had some time on his hands. He wasn’t getting any younger and he wanted a fresh start,” his son said. “I think he wanted to blaze a new trail.”
Mr. Graham worked briefly for the Peters Township Police Department in the 1970s, his son said, and became a constable later in life.
He said he and his father became closer as they got older.
“We kind of only had each other,” he said. “We could have whole conversations about movie quotes — it was like we were speaking our own language. I will miss that.”
Along with his son, Mr. Graham is survived by his sisters, Debby Smith, of Piney Point, Md., and Sandy Graham, of Greenville, Mercer County, and two grandchildren.
Services will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. June 1 at David J. Henney Funeral Home, 6364 Library Road, South Park.
Donations to honor his life may be made to the Bethel Park Volunteer Fire Company at http://www.bethelparkvfc.com/ or to ASPCA at https://www.aspca.org/or to the Wounded Warrior Project at https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/.