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Local figure

Gordon Gray

Gray was installed as president of the University of North Carolina on October 12, 1950 and served until 1955. Under him the Chapel Hill health affairs division expanded and the four-year medical, dental and nursing schools opened, Black students were first admitted, and the university gained FM radio and educational television licenses at Chapel Hill.

Source: NCpedia: Gray, Gordon

1909–1982 as the Library of Congress records it · Library of Congress authority record ↗

20 indexed works are connected with this person.

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Gordon Gray
Gordon Gray

Indexed works

Works in the index that concern this person directly, or were written by them. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it; background reading with wider context sits further down.

The inauguration of Gordon Gray as president of the consolidated University of North Carolina.

1950

Commemorative volume for the October 1950 inauguration of Gordon Gray (1909-1982) as president of the consolidated University of North Carolina. It records three days of events, October 8 to 10: a sermon and convocation in Greensboro at the Woman's College, a second convocation on the Chapel Hill campus, and the closing ceremony in Raleigh at State College. Published by the university, 95 pages with illustrations in a large format.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Gray, Gordon, 1909-1982 -- Inauguration.

NC Cardinal CH Historical Society

John F. Kennedy at University Day, October 12, 1961

Morton, Hugh M. · 1961

Black-and-white 4 by 5 inch negative by Hugh Morton of President Kennedy at the podium in Kenan Stadium, 12 October 1961. Behind him are William Friday, Fred Weaver, John Caldwell, J. Carlyle Sitterson and Chancellor William Aycock; Frank Porter Graham and Gordon Gray are also identified.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the DPLA record: Gray, Gordon, 1909-1982.

DPLA

John F. Kennedy at University Day, October 12, 1961

Morton, Hugh M. · 1961

Color 4 by 5 inch transparency of President Kennedy at the Kenan Stadium podium on University Day, 12 October 1961. Behind him, left to right, are Chancellor William Aycock, J. Carlyle Sitterson, Commerce Secretary Luther Hodges, Frank Porter Graham and former UNC president Gordon Gray. By Hugh Morton.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the DPLA record: Gray, Gordon, 1909-1982.

DPLA

John F. Kennedy at University Day, October 12, 1961

Morton, Hugh M. · 1961

Kennedy speaking onstage in Kenan Stadium on University Day, 12 October 1961, with Governor Terry Sanford, UNC System President William C. Friday, an unidentified man, Chancellor William B. Aycock and NC State Chancellor John Caldwell seated behind him. Color slide by Hugh Morton; Graham, Gray, Hodges and Sitterson also appear.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the DPLA record: Gray, Gordon, 1909-1982.

DPLA

John F. Kennedy at University Day, October 12, 1961

Morton, Hugh M. · 1961

Hugh Morton made this 4 by 5 inch color transparency as President Kennedy spoke at University Day on 12 October 1961. Behind him, left to right, are William Friday, Fred Weaver, John Caldwell and J. Carlyle Sitterson, with Aycock, Graham, Gray and Hodges also identified.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the DPLA record: Gray, Gordon, 1909-1982.

DPLA

Gordon Gray, Circa December 2, 1951

Morton, Hugh M. · 1951

Portrait of Gordon Gray, president of the University of North Carolina, holding a pamphlet in an office, probably on the Chapel Hill campus, about December 1951. Hugh Morton took it at the same sitting as his picture of Gray beside the 2 December 1951 Daily Tar Heel. Black-and-white 4 x 5 sheet film negative.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the DPLA record: Gray, Gordon, 1909-1982.

DPLA
Show 6 more

Gordon Gray, Circa December 2, 1951

Morton, Hugh M. · 1951

UNC President Gordon Gray sits in an office chair beside the 2 December 1951 Daily Tar Heel, about that date, probably in Chapel Hill. Hugh Morton made the portrait; another frame from the same sitting became the cover of The State magazine for 5 January 1952.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the DPLA record: Gray, Gordon, 1909-1982.

DPLA

"Southern Short Course in Press Photography", 1950s

Morton, Hugh M. · 1950

Julia Taylor Morton, wife of Hugh Morton, at left with Gordon Gray at a dinner given during the Southern Short Course in Press Photography at UNC-Chapel Hill in the 1950s. Gray was president of the University of North Carolina in the early 1950s. Color 35 mm slide by Hugh Morton.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the DPLA record: Gray, Gordon, 1909-1982.

DPLA

[Gordon Gray issue]

1950

Issue of Popular Government given over to Gordon Gray's appointment as president of the University of North Carolina in 1950, with biographical sketches of the presidents from 1795 onward on the inside cover. A cataloger supplied the title. Topics include college presidents in Chapel Hill and Gray himself, who lived from 1909 to 1982.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Gray, Gordon, 1909-1982.

UNC

Inauguration of Gordon Gray as president of the consolidated University of North Carolina [1950

1950 · University of North Carolina (System)

Printed program for Gordon Gray's installation in October 1950 as president of the three-campus consolidated University of North Carolina. The ceremonies moved across the state: an inaugural sermon and convocation at the Woman's College in Greensboro on 8 October, a convocation in Chapel Hill on 9 October, and the inauguration itself at North Carolina State College in Raleigh on 10 October.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Gray, Gordon, 1909-1982 -- Inauguration.

NC Digital Collections DPLA

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Francis Lavergne Johnson photographic collection, 1948-1971.

Johnson, Francis Lavergne, 1901-1971 · 1948

About 1,860 photographs made by Francis Lavergne Johnson (1901-1971) between 1948 and 1971, 1.8 linear feet in the North Carolina Collection at UNC. Johnson photographed university faculty and employees, and subjects include William Aycock, Katherine Kennedy Carmichael, Albert Coates, Paul Green, Charlie Justice, Josephina Niggli and Louis Round Wilson among those who worked at Chapel Hill in those years.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Gray, Gordon, 1909-1982.

UNC

Gordon Gray : a collection of mounted clippings chiefly from North Carolina newspapers through 1971 [sic]

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill · 1947

Mounted newspaper clippings about Gordon Gray, president of the University of North Carolina system, drawn chiefly from North Carolina papers and arranged chronologically by date of publication. The scrapbook concerns college presidents at Chapel Hill and the system's presidents, and follows Gray's public career as the state press reported it.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Gray, Gordon, 1909-1982.

UNC

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Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 8 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Construction begins on the Institute of Government building on Franklin Street A $10,000 gift from Will Reynolds, given after Congressman William Umstead won an IRS ruling that the Institute was a charity, paid for the land. Gifts from Gordon and Bowman Gray covered half of the $50,000 cost and Julian Price's Jefferson Standard Life lent the rest on Coates's signature, against more than half his salary, for a scaled-down Federal-style building of three floors over a raised basement. People: Albert Coates, Gordon Gray, Bowman Gray, William B. UmsteadSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 182
  2. William Friday serves as assistant dean of students at UNC in Chapel Hill After receiving his law degree from UNC in 1948, William Friday was assistant dean of students and later acting dean of students on the Chapel Hill campus until 1951, when he became assistant to Consolidated University president Gordon Gray. People: Gordon GraySearch the index · UNC Libraries: Office of President of the University of North Carolina (System): William C. Friday Records, 1957-1986
  3. Gordon Gray is installed as president of the University of North Carolina Gray, who had been secretary of the army, was installed as president of the three-campus University of North Carolina on October 10, 1950 at Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, the last day of a program that moved from Greensboro to Chapel Hill to Raleigh. The board of trustees had approved his selection on February 6, 1950.In the index: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill · DigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, October 11, 1950, p. 1
  4. UNC admits Edward O. Diggs, its first Black medical student UNC mailed Edward O. Diggs of Winston-Salem, a pre-medical student at A&T College in Greensboro, his letter of admission to the School of Medicine under the trustees' April 4, 1951 policy. He enrolled in the fall of 1951. People: W. Reece Berryhill, Gordon Gray, R. B. HouseDaily Tar Heel (DigitalNC): A&T Student Becomes First To Enter UNC, April 25, 1951
  5. Trustees make the campus heads chancellors and add a university vice-presidency On May 22, 1951, on President Gordon Gray's recommendation, the trustees made the controller a vice-president, created a second vice-presidency, and gave the heads of the branches the title of chancellor. Logan Wilson filled the new post that fall. People: Gordon GraySearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 154
  6. The Knapp Foundation pledges $500,000 toward a new building for the Institute of Government University President Gordon Gray secured a commitment from the foundation of the late Joseph Palmer Knapp for a $500,000 grant, to be matched by the same sum from the state, to build the Institute a new home. Coates had wanted the money as an endowment beside a state-built building, but Gray followed the matching plan that Margaret Knapp favored. People: Gordon Gray, Albert CoatesSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 242
  7. Edmund Strudwick's portrait of C. T. Council is given to the School of Pharmacy University President Gordon Gray presented a portrait of Durham's C. T. Council, painted by Edmund Strudwick of Hillsborough, to the UNC School of Pharmacy, where Dean E. A. Brecht accepted it at a luncheon in the Morehead building. People: Gordon Gray, E. A. (Edward Armond) BrechtSearch the index · DigitalNC: The Chapel Hill Weekly, May 15, 1953, page 9
  8. William Friday becomes acting president of the Consolidated University Named acting president at 35 while the trustees searched for Gordon Gray's successor, Friday began his duties on March 1, 1956. The board approved him as president on October 26, 1956, and at his first news conference he named moving the administrative offices from South Building on the Chapel Hill campus to the old Institute of Government building on Franklin Street as a first goal. People: Gordon GraySearch the index · UNC Libraries: Office of President of the University of North Carolina (System): William C. Friday Records, 1957-1986

Places in this person’s story

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 3 with a known location.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.

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Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as Gordon Gray, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

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Books about Gordon Gray

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Photographs, papers, and newspapers

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Picture: Gordon Gray. Public domain. Photograph by Morris J. MacGregor Jr. - No photo credit; The Project Gutenberg EBook of Integration of the Armed Forces, 1940-1965, by Morris J. MacGregor Jr. - www.gutenberg.org; via Wikimedia Commons

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