McGregor Gray
9/17/2001
McGregor Gray died September 17, 2001, in Brunswick, Maine, after a stroke. After earning a master’s in history at Columbia University in 1942, he entered the U.S. Army as a lieutenant. Prior to beginning his service, he married Dorothea Marburg, also from Reed College. A skilled skier, he was sent to the 10th Mountain Division in Colorado for training and was also trained in interrogation. He served in Europe in the two years following DDay, including collecting materials in Germany and Austria on war crimes, some of which were used at the Nuremberg Trials. After returning home, he re-entered Columbia to pursue a doctorate in ancient history. He taught ancient history at Barnard College beginning in 1947, and also taught humanities and contemporary civilization courses at Columbia. In 1950, he was recruited by the CIA to work with their office of training. He served in the CIA for 25 years in Washington, D.C., Munich, Vienna, and in Haiti during the Papa Doc regime. After retiring, he and his wife moved to St. Michaels, Maryland. She died in 1984. In 1985, he married Mary Louise Bliss, and in 1986 the couple moved to Black Mountain, North Carolina. They moved to Brunswick, ME, in 1996. He was a past member of the Third Haven Friends Meeting in Easton, Maryland, and an associate member of the Weststar Institute, an academic think tank in Sonoma, California. Survivors include his wife; a son; a daughter; a brother; five grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.