Gordon Gray

GORDON GRAY was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on 30 May 1909; graduated from the University of North Carolina, 1930; received a degree from the Yale Law School, 1933; was admitted to the New York bar and entered into practice there, 1933–1935; was admitted to the North Carolina bar and practiced there, 1935–1937; was president of the Piedmont Publishing Company, publishers of the Winston-Salem Journal and the Twin City Sentinel and operator of radio station WSJS, 1937–1947; married Jane Boyden Craige, 1938 (deceased 1953); served in the state senate, 1939–1942; entered military service as a private, 1942, was commissioned in Infantry, 1943, served overseas with Headquarters, Twelfth Army Group, 1944–1945, and emerged as a captain; was again a state senator, 1945–1947; served as Assistant Secretary of the Army, 24 September 1947–27 April 1949, and as Under Secretary of the Army, 25 May–19 June 1949; served as Secretary of the Army, 20 June 1949–12 April 1950; supervised the phaseout of Selective Service inductees and terminated the Army’s military government operation in Germany, 1949–1950; was a special assistant to the President on foreign economic policy, 1950; served as president of the University of North Carolina, 1950–1955; was Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, 1955–1957; married Nancy McGuire Beebe, 1956; was director of the Office of Defense Mobilization, 1957–1958; was special assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, 1958–1961; was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, 1961; was a member of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, 1961–1977, and chairman of the board of Triangle Broadcasting Company, 1969–1975; was chairman of the board of Summit Communications, Inc.; died in Washington, D.C., on 26 November 1982.

The Artist

Adrian Lamb (1901– ) studied at the Art Students League in New York and the Académie Julien in Paris. He lives in Connecticut and has a studio in New York City where he paints prominent Americans of the past and present. Gardner Cox (1906– ) studied at the Art Students League and at Harvard University and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. He lives in Cambridge and has a studio in Boston where he paints prominent Americans. Secretary Gray owned the original Cox portrait; he privately commissioned the Lamb copy and placed it in the Army gallery.

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GORDON GRAY
Truman Administration
By Adrian Lamb after Gardner Cox
Oil on canvas, 39½" x 29½", 1953

page created 9 March 2001

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