Gary Gray

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Biography

By Gary E. Gray

Gary Eugene Gray was born in Springhill, Louisiana in 1960 to parents Ronald Eugene Gray and Melba Dean Tubbs Gray. Gary's father supported the family, holding down three jobs, working as a bank teller at a local Springhill bank, a Disc-Jockey at the local Springhill radio station, plus performing in a local rock-n-roll group. His music group recorded several singles with some of the songs receiving air-time on local radio stations in north-west Louisiana. One of the singles, "Hold Back The Sunrise" was a local favorite and still enjoys a following on YouTube.

In 1965, two events would shape the family dramatically, first the birth of another child, Joby, and the family moved to Shreveport, Louisiana so that Gary's father, Ron, could pursue a career in radio broadcasting and entertainment promotions there. However, shortly after the move to Shreveport, problems developed in the marriage of Gary's parents. When Gary was age 6, Ron left and the couple filed for divorce. Ron eventually moved to Dallas, Texas to pursue his radio career there, leaving Gary and his young brother, Joby in Shreveport to be raised by their mother. The events leading up to his parent's breakup and eventual divorce was a traumatic event for the family.

As a young boy, Gary was interested in science, history, astronomy, and anything to do with the country's young space program. If you asked him what he wanted to be, he would always say, "an astronaut". He was 8 years old when Neil Armstrong took that first step on the moon, and this event impacted him profoundly. He learned everything he could about the space program, and the science behind what made it work. His greatest heroes were astronauts and in his room as a child, you would see posters with pictures of spacecraft, the moon landing, astronauts and models of the various spacecraft he had built hanging from the ceiling and residing on his desk and chest-of-drawers. This love of everything science and history would stay with him for the rest of his life.

Gary also took a keen interest in politics from a very early age, watching the Republican and Democratic National Conventions in 1968 for the first time and deciding he was a Republican, despite the fact that almost his entire family were democrats. He would argue politics with his grandparents and everyone seemed to enjoy these discussions. Later in life, he would resign his membership in the Republican Party and join the Libertarian Party.

In High School, he joined Air Force ROTC in his freshman year and enjoyed that program very much achieving the rank of Major by the time he graduated from High School.

He primarily dated one girl in High School, a very sweet young lady named Diane. However, once Gary left for college, the relationship did not last at a distance.

In May of 1978, Gary graduated from High School and his next goal was to be accepted at and graduate from a major University. This was accomplished when Gary graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor's Degree in Business with a major in Finance. While at University, he joined the local skydiving team and competed in national competitions at the collegiate level. He was also active in campus politics, being elected to Vice Chair of the University Republicans. To support himself, he worked at the State Republican Party headquarters 30 to 35 hours per week and also volunteered on many different campaigns, including Governor and several State House campaigns.

After graduating, he obtained the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) designation in Texas.

In 1984, his first full-time job after graduating from University was to work as the Regional Coordinator for southeast Texas on the Reagan-Bush '84 Campaign. This was a job over an 11 county region in southeast Texas to coordinate get-out-the-vote efforts, manage a call center staffed with volunteers and helping to coordinate local media events for the campaign. This was a challenging, but fun and exciting job and the biggest payoff at the end was getting to meet the President and Vice-President in addition to seeing the President re-elected.

With the campaign work behind him, Gary continued to pursue his interest in politics and saw success working in local government, rising to the position of Assistant Finance Director in the 4th largest City in the United States, Houston, Texas. He also served with distinction under four Mayors for over 16 years during his municipal government career. During his tenure with the City of Houston, he was also nominated and considered by the Mayor at that time for the position of Municipal Courts Director. Gary was not ultimately chosen for the position, but he always considered it an honor to be nominated and considered by the Mayor.

Gary eventually moved on into private enterprise and no longer works in government.

In the late 1980's, Gary met his future to-be wife, Paula in Houston, Texas and the couple dated for almost 5 years before Marrying. Together, they have a happy life and one child, Connor.

Primary Interests

Gary's interests are his family, science, history, politics, economics, business, sailing, flying airplanes, baroque classical music as well as ancient music, writing, genealogy, roller coasters, jet ski's, and just about anything that is fast and thrilling. He also enjoys volunteering at his son's sporting and school events.

During the early 1980's, Gary enjoyed skydiving, having made 217 jumps, with many of those being long duration free-fall, formation flying with other skydivers, and even canopy relative work flying with other jumpers.

Organizations (Past and Present)

• Texas Exes - University of Texas Alumni Association
• Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants
• American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
• United States Parachute Association
• Ancient Free and Accepted Masons
• Former Republican Party Member
• Libertarian Party Member

Genealogy

Gary is working on publishing his entire family tree on WikiTree.com for the purpose of freely sharing the common history and heritage with everyone in the family. WikiTree is free and open for everyone to enjoy and has collaborative features that encourage participation and additions to the ancestral tree.

DNA Testing

GEDmatch.com Kit # M940142

Rh Factor Blood Type: A Negative

• Maternal Haplogroup: H1c (a sub-group of H1)
  • Originated about 13,000 years ago
  • Origin location is likely Spain
  • Alternate origins from Morocco, Tunisia or Lebanon

• Paternal Haplogroup: I1* (a sub-group of I1)
  • Originated approximately 28,000 years ago
  • Only found in European populations
  • Highest concentrations found in Denmark and Sweden

• Neanderthal Ancestry: 2.9% (typical is 2.7%)
  • Scientists believe Neanderthals were extinct by 30,000 years ago
  • Cro-Magnon humans bred with Neanderthals thousands of years ago
  • This inter-breeding created a hybrid, which is modern humans (except humans from Sub-Sahara Africa, who have 0% Neanderthal DNA).

• Ancestry Breakdown:
  • Non-Specific Northern European: 71.4%
  • British & Irish: 16.6%
  • Non-Specific European: 8.9%
  • Non-Specific Southern European: 1.3%
  • Scandinavian: .9%
  • Sub-Sahara Africa: .5%
  • Unassigned: .3%
  • Sardinian: .1%
  • Ashkenazi Jewish: .1%

DNA Summary: Gary's paternal line belongs to the oldest Haplo Group while his maternal Haplo Group originated in a female ancestor that lived approximately 13,000 years ago. Furthermore, the percentage of his genome inherited from Neanderthal ancestors is 2.9%, slightly higher than other Europeans.

Some Contemporary Famous Relatives

• Ernest Tubb - Country Music Legend.

• Gene Autry - "The Singing Cowboy", 1930's Radio Star. Later, Movie and TV star.

• Jerry Lee Lewis - Rock and Roll and Country Music Singer and Song Writer.

• Jimmy Swaggart - Famous Televangelist.

• John David Crow - 1957 Heisman Trophy Winner and NFL Star.

Web Links

• Gary's Complete Photo Website Includes genealogy related photos as well.

• Gary's FindAGrave.com Profile Allows anyone to search millions of records for gravesites as well as allowing members to enter and maintain records of their own family and friends gravesites.

• BillionGraves.com Website that comes with an app for your smart phone. Install the app on your GPS enabled smart phone, then take pictures of gravestones, memorials, etc. The photos are automatically uploaded and the GPS encoding within the picture routes the picture to not only the correct cemetery but the correct grave plot as well. You can transcribe the writing on the grave marker later or wait for BillionGraves.com volunteers to do it. Its a great app and service for recording family history.

Sources

• Birth Certificate - (Private)
• Marriage Record