Petter Graver

Petter Graver (30 May 1920 – 21 January 1995) was a Norwegian jurist who first served as a diplomat from 1947 to 1988, then as a lawyer until his death. He was the Norwegian ambassador to several countries, among them Israel and the Soviet Union.

He was born in Tinn as a son of politician and accountant Torjus Graver. His father was hired as head of accounting in the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions in 1933, and the family moved to Bærum. In 1954 Petter Graver married Siren Hognestad. They had a daughter and two sons, among them the law professor and dean Hans Petter Graver.

As a teenager he became active in the Labour Party. He became chair of the Workers' Youth League in Bærum, and also board member in Bærum Labour Party in 1939. He finished his secondary education in 1940, and had his political career interrupted by the occupation of Norway when the Labour Party was declared illegal. He fought in the Norwegian Campaign of the spring 1940, and later fled to Canada where he received pilot training.

He later enrolled in law studies; while studying he was briefly employed in Arbeidernes Opplysningsforbund (). He graduated from the University of Oslo with the cand.jur. degree in 1947.

He was hired by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1947, but started out as a graduate of an air force academy in the UK. In 1949, however, he was posted as vice consul in Geneva. After a tenure as legation secretary in Rio de Janeiro from 1951 to 1954 he was embassy secretary in Paris from 1956 to 1958. He then attended NATO Defence College and the Norwegian Joint Staff College in 1958–1959. His next station abroad was that of embassy counsellor in the Soviet Union from 1961 to 1964.

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