Gray, Wood, 1905-

Wood Gray (1905-1977) was Professor of History at The George Washington University from 1934-72. He was born March 19, 1905 in Petersburg, Illinois. He attended the University of Illinois and earned his B.A. in 1927 and M.A. in 1928. Gray received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1933, and began his career at GW the following year. He was chairman of the department from 1937-53 and 1964-65. During World War II he served in the Army Air Corps, Special Staff, as a Lt. Colonel from 1943-46. At GW he was a founding member of the chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. He led the drive for one of the nation's most liberal faculty codes, concerning tenure and faculty rights, as a member of the Faculty Senate. He served as secretary to the American Association of University Professors for two terms and was the United States history section editor for the American Historical Review for more than twenty years. Dr. Gray helped integrate the Cosmos Club in Washington as a member of the admissions committee, bringing in as a member fellow historian John Hope Franklin. Dr. Gray specialized in American social history and the Civil War. He served as a consultant for the United States Information Agency in the preparation of histories and motion pictures for overseas distribution and lectured at the Foreign Service Institute and Industrial College of the Armed Forces. He wrote "Historian's Handbook: A Key to the Study and Writing of History," (1951) a guidebook for students of history that was used in more than five hundred colleges and universities. Dr. Gray was made Professor Emeritus in 1972. Dr. Gray married Dorothea Leal Gray August 13, 1927. She died in 1978. Dr. Gray died on June 27, 1977 in Washington, D.C. N.B. This history note was written in 2005.

From the description of Wood Gray papers, 1918-1973 (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 697622874