ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 12, 1996 TAG: 9602120052
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: NEWS OBIT
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR
Clark C. Graninger, former director of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salem, died last week in Niwot, Colo.
Graninger, 59, had cancer, said Jim Moore, the medical center's director of social work.
Graninger began his VA career in 1964 at the Veterans Administration headquarters in Washington. He held various staff and supervisory positions there until May 1977, when he was appointed assistant medical center director trainee at the VA Medical Center in Indianapolis.
He became assistant director at the VA Medical Center in Togus, Maine, in 1979; associate director at the VA Medical Center in Birmingham, Ala., in 1981; and director of the VA Medical Center in Albany, N.Y., in 1986.
In 1989, he became director at the Salem center, where his work included overseeing construction of the center's multimillion-dollar clinical addition.
He was the Salem center's director until 1992, when he was reassigned following a critical review of management issues raised by employees.
Graninger worked briefly as a consultant at the VA's Eastern Region Office in Fort Howard, Md. He retired in June 1993 and moved to Colorado.
When he learned he had cancer about seven months ago, he formed a multistate support group, Moore said.
``He called it the `Clark Graninger Buffalo Connection,''' said Moore, who was a group member, as were several other Salem center employees. ``It was something he conjured up himself to support him in his dying.''
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