Dr. Graff joined the faculty of the university’s College of Education in 1943 and served as head of the Department of Educational Administration (1945–1967). He founded the graduate program in Educational Administration and Supervision, in which he served until his retirement in 1971. He wrote many seminal articles on the theory and practice of educational administration and was the author of two major books, Improving Competence in Educational Administration (1956) and Philosophic Theory and Practice in Educational Administration (1966).
In addition to strengthening the graduate program of the university, Dr. Graff worked with the Tennessee Department of Education to improve the quality of school principals and supervisors. He also established a School Planning Laboratory that aided some two hundred school systems throughout the country in school building projects. His contributions to the intellectual life of the university have been recognized by the placement of a plaque in his honor on a faculty study.