A. Gray Magness

Who is A. Gray Magness?

Arthur Gray Magness was a real estate developer in northern New Castle County, Delaware.

Magness was born March 18, 1920 to Arthur J. and Marguerite Gray Magness and graduated from the University of Delaware in 1942. Two years later, he enlisted as a Private in the United States Army Air Corps. Magness was married twice, first to Elizabeth Pauline Weldin with whom he had three daughters, and then to Anne, with whom he had another three daughters. In 1952, he founded the Magness Construction company with his brother, Donald. Together, they are responsible for many of the housing developments which contributed to the suburban sprawl that marked the beginning of the second half of the twentieth century in the Brandywine Hundred. Among the properties he built are the neighborhoods of Graylyn Crest and the Cedar Tree apartments of Claymont. Magness died December 17, 1980 and is buried in the Grace Episcopal Church cemetery.