Harry Gray

Who was Harry Gray?

Harry Jack Gray was an American business manager and philanthropist, best known as CEO and chairman of United Technologies. He was born Harry Jack Grusin in Milledgeville Crossroads, Georgia. His mother, Bertha Grusin, died of cancer when he was six years old. He went to live with his older sister, Gussie, in Chicago, Illinois. 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.

He graduated with a journalism degree in 1941, and immediately joined the U.S. Army. His service included a year in the U.S. and three and a half years overseas during 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 left Litton to become president, chief administrative officer, and a member of the board of directors of United Aircraft. 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.