Gordon Gray (May 30, 1909 – November 26, 1982) was an American attorney and government official during the administrations of

Harry Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...

(1945–53) and

Dwight Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

(1953–61) associated with defense and national security.

Biography

Family

Gordon Gray was born in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, the son of

Bowman Gray Sr. Bowman Gray Sr. (May 1, 1874 – July 7, 1935) was a former president and chairman of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and a major benefactor of the medical school of Wake Forest College that would bear his name. Lif ...

and Nathalie Lyons Gray. He was married in 1938 to the former Jane Boyden Craige, and they had four sons: Gordon Gray Jr., Burton C. Gray,

C. Boyden Gray Clayland Boyden Gray (born February 6, 1943) is an American lawyer and former diplomat who served as White House Counsel from 1989 to 1993 and as U.S. Ambassador to the European Union from 2006 to 2007. He is a founding partner of the Washington, ...

and Bernard Gray. After Jane's death, Gray married the former Nancy Maguire Beebe. His father Bowman, his uncle James A. Gray Jr. and later his brother, Bowman Gray Jr., were all heads of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. His son,

, a graduate of Harvard and the University of North Carolina Law School, served as White House counsel for President

George Herbert Walker Bush George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...

. His nephew, Lyons Gray, also a graduate of both North Carolina and Yale, is a former member of the

North Carolina House of Representatives The North Carolina House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the North Carolina General Assembly. The House is a 120-member body led by a Speaker of the House, who holds powers similar to those of the President pro-tem in the North Ca ...

, chief financial officer of the

Environmental Protection Agency A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

, and state Secretary of Revenue.

Education

Gordon Gray attended

Woodberry Forest School Woodberry Forest School is a private, all-male boarding school located in Woodberry Forest, Madison County, Virginia, in the United States. Woodberry's current enrollment is 405. Students come from 28 U.S. states (plus the District of Columbia ...

for high school. He graduated from the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

in 1930, where he was a member of

Delta Kappa Epsilon Delta Kappa Epsilon (), commonly known as ''DKE'' or ''Deke'', is one of the oldest fraternities in the United States, with fifty-six active chapters and five active colonies across North America. It was founded at Yale College in 1844 by fifteen ...

fraternity (Beta chapter) & the secretive,

Order of Gimghoul The Order of Gimghoul is a collegiate secret society at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It is headquartered at Hippol (or Gimghoul) Castle in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. History The order was founded in 1889 by Robert Worth ...

. He earned his law degree from

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by ''U ...

in 1933 and practiced law for two years in New York City before returning to Winston-Salem. UNC presented Gray with an honorary law degree in 1949.

Public career

Gray began his public life as a lawyer. In 1937, he bought the Piedmont Publishing Company, owner of the ''

Winston-Salem Journal The ''Winston-Salem Journal'' is an American, English language daily newspaper primarily serving Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, North Carolina. It also covers Northwestern North Carolina. The paper is owned by ...

, The Twin City Sentinel,'' and

WSJS WSJS (600 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and broadcasting to the Greensboro/Winston-Salem/ High Point media market. It airs a talk and sports radio format. WSJS is owned by the Truth Broadcastin ...

radio. He added WSJS-FM in 1947 and WSJS-TV in 1953. He sold the newspapers in 1968, but formed Triangle Broadcasting to hold onto WSJS-AM-FM-TV. He also bought the local cable franchise for Winston-Salem, a move that forced him to sell off the broadcasting outlets in 1972. He served in the

North Carolina General Assembly The North Carolina General Assembly is the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of the Government of North Carolina, State government of North Carolina. The legislature consists of two chambers: the North Carolina Senate, Senate and the North Ca ...

from 1939 to 1943 and from 1947 to 1949, representing Forsyth County. He entered the U.S. Army in 1942 as a private and rose to captain, serving in Europe with General

Omar Bradley Omar Nelson Bradley (February 12, 1893April 8, 1981) was a senior Officer (armed forces), officer of the United States Army during and after World War II, rising to the rank of General of the Army (United States), General of the Army. Bradley ...

's forces. Gray's service to the federal government began with his appointment as President Harry S. Truman's assistant secretary of the army in 1947; two years later, he was appointed

Secretary of the Army The secretary of the Army (SA or SECARMY) is a senior civilian official within the United States Department of Defense, with statutory responsibility for all matters relating to the United States Army: manpower, personnel, reserve affairs, insta ...

. He served in this post from 1949 until 1950. The following year he became director of the newly formed

Psychological Strategy Board The Psychological Strategy Board (PSB) was a committee of the United States executive formed to coordinate and plan for psychological operations. It was formed on April 4, 1951, during the Truman administration. The board was composed of the Unde ...

which planned for and coordinated government

psychological operations Psychological warfare (PSYWAR), or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations (PsyOp), have been known by many other names or terms, including Military Information Support Operations (MISO), Psy Ops, political warfare, "Hearts and Mi ...

; he remained in the post until his resignation in January 1952, all the while continuing to lead the University of North Carolina. He was the second president of the Consolidated University of North Carolina, succeeding

Frank Porter Graham Frank Porter Graham (October 14, 1886 – February 16, 1972) was an American educator and political activist. A professor of history, he was elected President of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1930, and he later became the firs ...

in 1950. In 1954 Gray chaired a

committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

appointed by AEC chairman

Lewis Strauss Lewis Lichtenstein Strauss ( "straws"; January 31, 1896January 21, 1974) was an American businessman, philanthropist, and naval officer who served two terms on the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), the second as its chairman. He was a major ...

which recommended revoking

Robert Oppenheimer J. Robert Oppenheimer (; April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist. A professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, Oppenheimer was the wartime head of the Los Alamos Laboratory and is often ...

's security clearance. The Gray Board, as it was known, issued its split decision on May 27, 1954, with Gray and Thomas A. Morgan recommending the revocation, despite their finding that Oppenheimer was a "loyal citizen." Dr. Ward V. Evans, a conservative Republican and the third member of the board, dissented, saying that most of the allegations against Oppenheimer had been heard before, in 1947, when he had originally received his clearance. In the book '' American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer'' the chairmanship of Gray during the hearings was described as severely lacking. Gray had allowed that the prosecutors briefed the committee for a full week without representatives from the defendants being present. Moreover, Gray let the prosecutors use documents and testimonies that the defendants attorneys were denied access to, as well as material that was obtained by illegal means such as unwarranted wiretaps. The authors called the Gray Board a "veritable kangaroo court in which the head judge accepted the prosecutors lead". Gray shocked proponents of public education in North Carolina when he said, in a November 1954 Founder's Day speech at

Guilford College Guilford College is a private liberal arts college in Greensboro, North Carolina. Guilford has both traditional students and students who attend its Center for Continuing Education (CCE). Founded in 1837 by members of the Religious Society of ...

, that "if I had to make a choice between a complete system of publicly supported higher education or a complete system of private higher education, I would choose the latter as a greater safeguard of the things for which we live." Less than a year later, Secretary of Defense

Charles Erwin Wilson Charles Erwin Wilson (July 18, 1890 – September 26, 1961) was an American engineer and businessman who served as United States Secretary of Defense from 1953 to 1957 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Known as "Engine Charlie", he was prev ...

named Gray assistant secretary for international security affairs and Gray's brief career in academia was ended. President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed him to head the

Office of Defense Mobilization The Office of Defense Mobilization (ODM) was an independent agency of the United States government whose function was to plan, coordinate, direct and control all wartime mobilization activities of the federal government, including manpower, economic ...

in 1957, where he served until the office's consolidation in 1958. Eisenhower then appointed Gray his

National Security Advisor A national security advisor serves as the chief advisor to a national government on matters of security. The advisor is not usually a member of the government's cabinet but is usually a member of various military or security councils. National sec ...

from 1958 until 1961. On January 18, 1961, President Eisenhower awarded Gray the

Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, along with the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by the president of the United States to recognize people who have made "an especially merito ...

. He served on the

President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board The President's Intelligence Advisory Board (PIAB) is an advisory body to the Executive Office of the President of the United States. According to its self-description, it "provides advice to the President concerning the quality and adequacy of ...

under Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford. In 1976, he was awarded the

United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...

's Sylvanus Thayer Award. From 1962 to 1963, Gray was head of the

Federal City Council Federal City Council is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that promotes economic development in the city of Washington, D.C., in the United States. Incorporated on September 13, 1954, it is one of the most powerful private groups in the city, a ...

, a group of business, civic, education, and other leaders interested in economic development in Washington, D.C. Gray was also publisher of the

, chairman of the board of Piedmont Publishing Company and chairman of the

National Trust for Historic Preservation The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a privately funded, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that works in the field of historic preservation in the United States. The member-supported organization was founded in 1949 by ...

References

External links

Inventory of the Office of President of the University of North Carolina (System): Gordon Gray Records, 1950-1955
in the University Archives, UNC-Chapel Hill.
Papers of Gordon Gray, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library

* ttp://www.army.mil/leaders/leaders/usa/former/gray.html Undersecretary of the Army biographybr>Gordan Gray biography
in ''Secretaries of War and Secretaries of the Army'',

United States Army Center of Military History The United States Army Center of Military History (CMH) is a directorate within the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command. The Institute of Heraldry remains within the Office of the Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of the Arm ...

.
The American Presidency ProjectGordon Gray Photograph Collection
United States Army Heritage and Education Center, Carlisle, Pennsylvania , - , - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Gordon 1909 births 1982 deaths Lawyers from Baltimore Military personnel from Baltimore 20th-century American politicians Bowman Gray family Eisenhower administration cabinet members Leaders of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill North Carolina state senators Presidents of the University of North Carolina System United States Assistant Secretaries of Defense United States National Security Advisors United States Secretaries of the Army United States Under Secretaries of the Army University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni Woodberry Forest School alumni