William Gray, Communications Director at Trinity, Dies
Episcopal News Service. November 6, 1980 [80398]
NEW YORK -- The Rev. William B. Gray, director of communications for Trinity Episcopal Parish here since 1970, died Nov. 4 at his home after a one-year illness with cancer. He would have been 53 on Nov. 6.
At Trinity, he directed communications for both the Church and the corporation with its extensive real estate holdings, a Church radio program, and video cable programs. He originated the idea of and hosted the WABC-TV Sunday morning program "Interface" shown during 1979-80.
He was an advisor to the Diocese of New York and to the national Church in communications.
Mr. Gray was a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He was for a period the editor and co-owner of the McDuffie (Georgia) Progress, a weekly newspaper. He worked in public relations for the Southern Bell Telephone Company, and in management of both the Georgia and Kansas Press Association, before entering the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, an Episcopal Seminary, Berkeley, Calif., in 1958.
After ordination he served parishes in Seattle, Wash., and in Cedar Falls, Iowa. In 1966, he became director of communications for the Diocese of Virginia where he produced an award-winning church newspaper, The Virginia Churchman. In 1970 he edited The Convention Daily during the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in Houston.
He was a member of the Episcopal Society for Cultural and Racial Unity and participated in the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. in 1965. He was an early advocate for the ordination of women in the Episcopal Church.
He was a director of the Board of Trade, the American Israel Friendship League, and the China Town Asia CineVision. He was a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the New York Association of Industrial Communicators and the Public Relations Society of America. He was chairman of the Student Exposition of the Energy Resources of the National Energy Foundation.
He had traveled and written about the Anglican Communion in Asia, Africa and Central America. He spent a month in the People's Republic of China in 1979.
He was co-author with his wife of The Episcopal Church Welcomes You (Seabury Press, 1974), and the author of articles appearing in Christian Century, the Television Quarterly and other secular and religious publications.
In the U.S. Army he served as Public Information Specialist 1953-55.
He is survived by his wife Betty, two daughters, Grace and Amy, his parents, Dr. J. D. Gray and Mrs. Alta Boyce Gray of Augusta, Ga., and a sister, Mrs. J. N. Clemmer of Bella Vista, Ark.
In lieu of flowers the family suggests that donations be sent to Memorial Sloane-Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Avenue, Box E, New York, N. Y. 10021, marked "for research," or to the Outreach Program of Trinity Parish, 74 Trinity Place, New York, N.Y. 10006.
A memorial service was held at Trinity Church at 11 a. m. on Nov. 6.