For generations of the Graham family, the growing process includes education at Northwest College.

Travis Graham grew up in Basin and graduated from Riverside High School in 1992. Enrolling at Northwest College was an obvious choice as he followed his father’s path to success. Tim Graham graduated from NWC in 1971 NWC and is now a retired veterinarian living in Sheridan.

Travis chose a different field of medicine, majoring in pre-med at Northwest College on his way to becoming a Radiologist. His wife Joani grew up in Cody and worked as a medical Speech-Language Pathologist.

When Travis and Joani decided to endow a scholarship with the NWC Foundation, it was only natural they’d choose to support students from the Big Horn Basin. They remember fondly the small world story about their first scholarship recipient – also from Basin.

Travis shared the student’s thank you letter with his father. Pleased with his son’s help to a local girl, Tim responded by email, “OK, now for the rest of the story....“In about 1969, this girl’s step-grandfather owned a farm out between Otto and Burlington. Your Grandpa was looking at a land leveling job that he had open. The guy asked how things were going. He knew Grandpa had been hurt that year in a Caterpillar incident and hadn't worked much. Grandpa told him about the year of limited work and that I was going off to my second year of college in Powell. The guy said.... ‘Well, if you have a college to pay for, you better get to moving dirt.’ He gave Grandpa the job. I can show you the field one of these days. Maybe that educational opportunity is now coming back full circle.”

The Grahams continue to believe Northwest is fertile ground upon which students can cultivate quality education. Their son, Ian, graduated from Northwest College with a secondary education degree this past May, adding a third generation of NWC alumni to the family.

The Dr. Travis and Joani Graham Scholarship provides valuable support to help students flourish at Northwest College.

 

This feature originally appeared in the July 2026 issue of TrapperLink. If you'd like to receive future issues of this bimonthly digital newsletter in your inbox, click here.