Montgomery-Labette-Shawnee County KS Archives Obituaries.....GRAY, Carl Raymond May 9, 1939 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ks/ksfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Bill Boggess billboggess@webtv.net February 20, 2006, 4:09 pm THE NEW YORK TIMES, May 9, 1939 (transcribed, 02/20/06) Copy from Ft Myers (FL) Public Library           ---------------         THE   NEW   YORK   TIMES           Wednesday, May 10, 1939              --------------          CARL R GRAY, 71,          RAILROAD LEADER              --------------     Vice Chairman of the Board of Union         Pacific, Head of Line 17 Years, Dies               -------------           ROSE FROM STATION AIDE                ------------- Stricken in Washington Hotel While on Trip Concerning Pending Legislation                   -------------       Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES. WASHINGTON, May 9, . --- Carl R Gray, veteran railroad executive and vice chairman of the Union Pacific Railroad, was found dead in his bed at the Mayflower Hotel here today. Death was attributable to heart disease. He was 71 years old.       Mr Gray was in Washington in connection with pending railroad legislation, having served as unofficial chairman of a railway legislative board of executives and union leaders who made a report to President Roosevelt last December. He had not been in ill health.       His railroad career covered a period of more than fifty-six years, during which time he rose from a place as helper to a smaller-town station agent to the presidency and later vice chairmanship of the Union Pacific. In the interim he held various executive posts on half a dozen railroads which operated in thirty-nine of the forty-eight states of the Union.           President 17 Years       For seventeen years president of the Union Pacific Railroad, Mr Gray payed an outstanding part in the councils of railroad operation. He had started his career as a station sweeping boy. When he retired as president of the Union Pacific on Oct 1, 1937, he became vice chairman of the board of the system and continued to take part in the work of the railroad.           **************               PICTURE           ************** Mr Gray was born in Princeton, Ark, on Sept 28, 1867, the son of the late Colonel Oliver C Gray, educator an Confederate veteran, and of the late Mrs Virginia Davis Gray. When he completed his course in the preparatory department of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, where his father was a professor of mathematics. Mr Gray, although only 15 years old, was ready to enter the university. However, members of the faculty, asserting that he was "six feet tall and thin as two clapboards nailed together." suggested he remain out of school for a time. [1929, universirty bestowed an Honorary Degree of LL D to him, as had three other like institutions]       The St Louis and San Francisco railway ran through Fayetteville [tracks and station on land furnished by Carl's parents, from their 2-1/4 acre, 1877, homestead, 1st train 8 Jun 1881] --- and so fascinated was the youth by it that he began, while still 15, to work for the road on March 20, 1883. The Fayetteville station staff then comprised an agent telegrapher and helper. [1st paying job at Rogers, AR]       Four years after he joined the railroad force he was commercial agent and district freight agent for the "Frisco" [Wichita, KS]. When he was 30 years old he was division superintendent [Neodesha, KS]. In 1900 he became superintendent of transportation and general manager, [Monett, MO], and 1909 he was named senior vice president[St Louis, MO].       For eight months he served as general manager of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois and in 1911 he was picked by James J Hill management to become president of the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railroad and the Oregon Electric line. In 1912 he took the post of president of Great Northern and in March 1914 he came East to assume the presidency of the Western Maryland.           President of Union Pacific       On conclusion of his government service, Mr Gray returned to the Western Maryland for a brief period. In 1920 he was made president of the Union Pacific, one of the leading systems of the country.     In April of 1937, when Mr Gray's impending retirement in October was announced, W Averill Harriman, chairman of the board of the Union Pacific, announced:   "In order that the Union Pacific may retain the benefit and value of Mr Gray's lifelong experience in the railroad industry and his knowledge of present railroad problems, I am gratified to state that Mr Gray has agreed to continue in the Union Pacific service and will assume post of vice chairman of the board."       In 1938-39 Mr Gray was active as a railroad spokesman in connection with governmental and railroad efforts to rehabilitate the railroads of the nation. Early in 1938 he was the only railroad executive on the list of those invited by president Roosevelt to a White House conference to discuss the railroad situation.       He served that year and this on the President's special committee of railroad management and labor executives. The committee consisting of three management and three union leaders, was named last September to study the railroad problem and draft a program for rehabilitation.       Upon his retirement as president of Union Pacific Mr Gray moved to New York, after living many years in Omaha. His residence here was ar 1035 Fifth Avenue.       Surviving are his widow and three sons, Carl R Gray, Jr of St Paul, Minn, executive vice president of the Chicago, St Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railway: Dr Howard K Gray, of the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn, who operated upon James Roosevelt, son of the President, last year, and Russell D Gray, Wellesley, Mass, who is connected with the New York, Ontario & Western Railway.               <>-------<>-------<> Additional Comments: Additional documented facts inserted "[ ]" by Bill Boggess Carl, as stated, son of O C and Virginia GRAY, he married 6 Dec 1886 at Oswego, KS, Harriette Amanda (Flora) GRAY d/o John Andrew and Mary Elizabeth (Shults) FLORA of Kansas, she the 1st white child born in Montgomery county, Kansas 17 Sep 1869. 50th wedding anniversary party given by friends with 1400 attending at Omaha, featured in "Life" Magazine, pages 68 through 72, 21 Dec 1936 issue. See booklet "Carl Raymond Gray, Foot Prints on the Sands of Time", filed at: Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Arkansas History Commission, Special Collections, University of Arkansas, Rogers Historical Museum, Nebraska Historical Society, and Minnesota Historical Society, Thomaston Maine Public Library, Colby College, Waterville Maine(where he was a member of Board of Trustees, 1938 to death) File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ks/montgomery/obits/g/gray41ob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/ksfiles/ File size: 7.2 Kb