Past Most Worshipful GrandMaster – Marvin I. Gray
Marvin I. Gray was born in Rutherfordton, North Carolina on September 17, 1934. His father, Reverend Felix L. Gray was a Minister of a Holiness Church and his mother, Rose Gray was a church Missionary. He was educated in both Rutherfordton and Spindale, North Carolina. Upon graduation, Most Worshipful Gray went on to attend North Carolina A&T, in Greensboro, North Carolina. Having great athleticism, he was a member of the football team.
Most Worshipful Gray interrupted his studies to join the United States Air Force, so that he could help to support his siblings. The military provided him an opportunity to explore new cultures and people. Most Worshipful Gray had the rare opportunity to serve not only in Europe, but also in Asia. It was while he was in the Sovereign Kingdom of Thailand that he met his wife, Thavorn L. Wong-Ek. Together, they have three lovely children: Laddawan E. Strong, Supoch N. Gray and Michael L. Gray. He went on to retire from the Air Force with 23 years of service, and settled down in Felton, Delaware. His hobbies include an occasional game of golf, and at his wife’s request, fishing.
Holding on to the way his parents raised him, Most Worshipful Gray is a student of the Bible and continues to serve the Lord. He currently is an active member of St. James Union Church, AME, of Frederica, Delaware. He is treasurer of the Trustees Steward Board, Sunday school Teacher, member of the Senior and Men’s Choirs, and Chairman of the Annual Honorary Banquet. He try’s to live by the creed: “If I can help one soul, then my living will not have been in vain.”
Most Worshipful Gray was made a member of the Prince Hall Masonic family by Edwards Air Force Base Military Lodge #103, while stationed at Edwards Air Force Base, California. He has held the following offices in the subordinate lodges that he’s been affiliated with: Junior and Senior Warden and Worshipful Master. On a Grand scale, he has served as District Deputy GrandMaster, Worshipful Grand Lecturer, RW Grand Junior and Senior Warden, and RW Deputy GrandMaster. It was on June 26, 1993 that Past Master Marvin I. Gray was elected as Most Worshipful Grand Master of Masons, for the State and Jurisdiction of Delaware. He has continued to be re-elected to this office every year since.
Most Worshipful Gray knows that the ultimate measure of his tenure will not be how he has stood during times of comfort and convenience, but rather how he faces up to trials and barriers that lie in his path to leading this Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge the next millennium. He has thus demonstrated that he is a patient man. He neither is conservative or radical, choosing to be prudent in all of his decision making. He has shown that he is a man of vision and demonstrated his firm conviction of the need for organization.
Most Worshipful GrandMaster Marvin I. Gray knows that today, more than ever, there is a need for a unity of people. Life is too short, and time is fleeting. He therefore has applied the same measure to his life as Frederick Douglass, who said, “Judge me not by the heights that I have attained, but the depths from which I came.” In doing this, he can be assured that his work will live after him.