He was born Harry Jack Grusin in Milledgeville Crossroads, Georgia. His mother, Bertha Grusin, died of cancer when he was six years old. His father"s business failed when he was eight, and he financed his college education at the University of Illinois with multiple jobs that included washing dishes, waiting tables, and stoking a boarding-house furnace.
Bachelor of Science with honors, University Illinois, 1941. Master of Science, University Illinois, 1947. Honorary Doctor of Laws, Trinity College, Connecticut, 1976.
Honorary Doctor of Laws, University Hartford, 1978. Honorary Doctor of Laws, University Connecticut, 1982. Honorary Doctor of Science, Florida Institute of Technology, 1980.
Doctor of Engineering (honorary), Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 1983. Doctor of Humane Letters (honorary), St. Joseph College, 1997. Doctor of Philosophy (honorary), University Illinois.
His service included a year in the United States. and three and a half years overseas during World World War World War II He received the Silver Star and was discharged as a captain. Gray resumed his studies at U of I, completing a master"s degree, with high honors, in 1947. He changed his last name to Gray in 1951.
He worked in advertising and sales until joining Consolidated Electro Dynamics in 1954.
That company grew in annual sales from $1 million to $20 billion and changed its name to Litton Industries by the time he left its employ in 1971. He was named chief executive officer the next year, then also served as chairman of UA and its successor United Technologies Corporation, from 1974 until retiring in 1986.
Shortly before retiring, he became the second recipient of an honorary doctorate from Central Connecticut State University. He received an honorary degree from Oglethorpe University in Doctor of Engineering in 1984.
Since that retirement, he has served as chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Harry Gray Associates, which participated with Shawmut National Venture in the 1993 buyout of Mott Metallurgical Corporation.
Gray is also listed as the largest private donor to the construction of the National Infantry Museum in Columbus, Georgia. The museum also houses his helmet and other memorabilia, including his Silver Star awarded for valor during the Battle of the Bulge. As of 2003, Gray was also chairman of the boards of both Mott Corporation and SourceOne.
Harry Gray died on Wednesday, July 8, 2009 at the age of 89 at Hartford Hospital, Connecticut.
According to Stephen Miller"s remembrance article (obituary) published in the Wall Street Journal on July 10, 2009, he was "a merger artist who resented making just one deal at a time." Gray was both admired and feared as "The Grand Acquisitor". In the mid-1970s, his prime deal-making days as Chief Executive Officer and chairman of United Technologies Corporation, Gray maintained a list of the 50 companies he sought to acquire.
As he assembled one of America"s largest manufacturing companies, he joked that his biggest handicap was that the government would only allow him to make one acquisition at a time. Gray was always preoccupied with holding more companies.
But he was equally intent on controlling what he had.
Passing the torch at the mandatory retirement age of 65 was something he could not abide. "In this system, we don"t need a Number. 2 man," he once told Business Week.
Corporator Hartford Hospital, Institute of Living, Hartford, Good Samaritan Hospital, West Palm Beach, Florida. Board directors Old State House Association, Hartford. Chairman, Board Of Directors National Science Center Foundation, Washington.
Captain Army of the United States, 1941-1946. Member Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Business Council Washington (board directors), Navy League United States, American Institute Cont. Germany Studies (chairman).
Married Helen Buckley, 1978. Children: Pam, Vicky Lynn.
