Third Chance

Twice in his life, quiet, forthright Army Secretary Gordon Gray just missed an academic career. As top scholar in his class ('30) at the University of North Carolina, he planned to be a history teacher, reluctantly postponed it when his father, Tobacco Tycoon Bowman Gray of the R. J. Reynolds Co. (Camels) persuaded him to tackle Yale Law School first.

After law practice in New York and North Carolina, Gray took over Winston-Salem's two newspapers and radio station, bought part interest in the Charlotte News. In 1942 came another change of sky: declining commissions, 32-year-old

Gordon Gray went off to World War II as a private. He came out a captain, and was later appointed Assistant Secretary of the Army. Last spring Gordon Gray decided to resign, move his wife and four boys back to North Carolina and accept the deanship of his alma mater's up & coming business college. President Truman scotched his plans by persuading him to stay on as Secretary of the Army.

Last week it looked as though Secretary Gray, at 40, might end up a schoolman yet. He had given Governor William Kerr Scott permission to put his name before University of North Carolina trustees as a candidate for the vacant university presidency. Whether Gray would take over the job that his old teacher, Historian Frank

Graham, had resigned after his appointment to the U.S. Senate depended on two things: 1) formal approval by the North Carolina trustees and 2) Harry Truman's consent to let his able, hard-working Army Secretary go back home. There was no doubt what Gordon Gray wanted to do. Said he: "I have decided to devote the rest of my life to public service, and I would rather do it in North Carolina than anywhere else."

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