Wood Gray (March 19, 1905 - June 27, 1977) was a history professor at

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Chartered in 1821 by the United States Congress, GWU is the largest Higher educat ...

, public speaker, and writer. He specialized in American social history and the history of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

. He was a consultant for the

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working on histories and motion pictures for overseas distribution. He gave talks at the Foreign Service Institute and Industrial College. The George Washington University Libraries have a collection of his papers. He was born in

Petersburg, Illinois Petersburg is a city in and the county seat of Menard County, Illinois, United States, on the bluffs and part of the floodplain overlooking the Sangamon River. It is part of the Springfield, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population ...

, and graduated from Petersburg Harris High School as

valedictorian Valedictorian is an academic title for the highest-performing student of a graduating class of an academic institution. The valedictorian is commonly determined by a numerical formula, generally an academic institution's grade point average (GPA ...

and captain of the track team. He received a B.A. from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

in 1927 and an M.A. in 1928. A student manager for the school's football team, he recounted taping

Red Grange Harold Edward "Red" Grange (June 13, 1903 – January 28, 1991), nicknamed "the Galloping Ghost" and "the Wheaton Iceman", was an American football halfback for the University of Illinois, the Chicago Bears, and the short-lived New York Yankees ...

's ankles before the game against Michigan in which Grange scored five touchdowns. Gray earned a Ph.D. from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

in 1933. He began teaching history at George Washington University in 1934 and became department chair in 1937. He served in the

Army Air Corps Army Air Corps may refer to the following army aviation corps: * Army Air Corps (United Kingdom), the army aviation element of the British Army * Philippine Army Air Corps (1935–1941) * United States Army Air Corps (1926–1942), or its p ...

as a Special Staff Lt. Colonel from 1943 until 1946. In 1965 he was a member of

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

's historical advisory committee. He wrote about the Copperheads of the

era who he described as peace at any price Democrats.

Personal life

He married Dorothea Leal Gray (died 1978) on August 13, 1927. He died in Washington, D.C.

Bibliography

*''Historian's Handbook: A Key to the Study and Writing of History'' (1951) a textbook *''The Hidden Civil War: The Story of the Copperheads'' (1942) *''Essays in American Historiography'', co-authored with Marcus W. Jernegan of (1937) *''The George Washington Key to Historical Research'' (1956) with William Columbus Davis et al.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Wood 1905 births 1977 deaths People from Petersburg, Illinois Historians of the American Civil War NASA people University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni University of Chicago alumni George Washington University faculty Historians from Illinois