Pioneer educator Gray dies

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, March 24, 1998 | 10:19 a.m.

As the first superintendent of the Clark County School District in the late 1950s, R. Guild Gray discovered one of his principals was sagging under the weight of a troubled marriage.

"He got that principal in there with his wife and he counseled them and they stayed together," said Gary Gray, Gray's son. "If there was ever a problem, he went right after the person."

Gray was perhaps best known as an assertive, effective long-time educator. But he was also a U.S. Navy veteran, poet, author, photographer and former state legislator. He died Monday after a two-year battle with lung cancer. He was 86.

"He was a man of many talents but probably will be known for being a respected citizen, for always doing what was best for the city, the county, the state, the country," Gary Gray said.

R. Guild Gray came to Nevada from Peoria, Ill., when he was 2, in 1913. He grew up in Reno, and graduated from Reno High School, where he later taught and was principal.

At age 16, Gray got his first job in the hinterlands of Nevada as a surveyor. His deep love for the state, its land and history are rooted in that job, family members said. Gary Gray said his father loved to visit the remote, far-flung regions of the state even in recent years.

"He could spend five days going to Reno," Gray said.

Gray served as second lieutenant in the Navy during World War II, teaching other sailors radar and working on an aircraft carrier as an admiral's researcher.

After a stint as principal in Reno and superintendent in Yerrington, where the skilled carpenter also built his own home, Gray in 1953 became the first superintendent of the Las Vegas Union High School District.

In 1955, fragmented school districts all over the state consolidated into 17 county districts, and Gray became the first superintendent of the Clark County School District. Gray had been instrumental in designing the new county school district configuration.

Facing growth issues similar to today, Gray lobbied lawmakers to enact a 2 percent sales tax to raise money for schools. In 1956, he convinced voters to support an $11 million bond issue, the largest ever at the time.

"We were so short of money that ... we'd have to take the textbooks from one school to another," Gray said in a 1990 newspaper interview. "There were actually cracks in our school floors where the kids could lose their pencils. So that's when I got active in trying to get a sales tax in the state."

Gray's son confirmed that his father had a reputation for holding fast to strong opinions if he believed he was right, despite harsh criticism.

"Sometimes, I'm very intolerant of stupidity," R. Guild Gray said in the newspaper interview. "And prejudice, obsessions, bigotry. And I think most of all, intellectual dishonesty. Of all the troubles I've been in in this world, I think most of them have come about from me speaking my mind."

Gray later left the school district to work for a savings and loan. As a state assemblyman from 1963 to 1966, Gray lost his job when he refused to support legislation that favored savings and loans.

"Not a lot of people would do that," Gary Gray said. "He felt that the bill wasn't right."

Gray also served as Boulder City manager from 1965 to 1968.

Friends called Gray a Nevada legend.

"He ran a school district, he was a legislator, a banker, he was a writer and poet," said Ralph Rohay, who knew Gray through the Las Vegas Rotary Club. "He was an all-round wonderful guy."

Current Clark County Schools Superintendent Brian Cram said Gray offered to guide him through what can be a very trying job.

"The thing I remember best about him was that he was a real human, he cared about the feelings of other people," Cram said. "He was always giving me a lot of atta-boys."

Pupils at R. Guild Gray Elementary School in southwest Las Vegas Monday afternoon were saddened when principal Bea Soares announced their school's namesake had died. Gray made frequent visits to the school, making special trips in October to teach fourth-graders Nevada history.

"He just got down on the kids' level," Soares said. "He sat on the floor and read to them, even at 80-something years old. He wasn't an arm's length kind of guy. The kids are just devastated."

Gray was active with the Las Vegas Rotary Club, Nevada State Retired Teachers Association, Boulder City Historical Society, and Nevada State Museum and Historical Society.

Gray is survived by his son, Gary, and one daughter, Irmalee Ross, of Las Vegas. Six grandchildren and one great-grandchild also survive.

Funeral services will be at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at the Salvation Army Worship Center, 29O0 Palomino Lane. Burial will be private.