WILLIAM STEELE GRAY was born in
1856, in Newtonstewart, County Tyrone, Ireland, the son of John and Sarah
Jane Steele Gray.
He received his early education in
Ireland at the Model National School, coming to New York when fifteen
years old, and afterward attending evening high school and Cooper
Institute.
Mr. Gray entered the chemical
business in 1872, and in 1881 founded the house of William S. Gray & Co.,
commission merchants, importers and exporters of chemicals, which has
developed into one of the leading concerns of its kind in the country. He
is also a director in the Barrett Company, the United States Industrial
Alcohol Company, the Citizens Central National Bank and the Dry Dock
Savings Bank.
He is a Veteran of the Seventh
Regiment, N. G. N. Y.; a Republican; and a member of St. Thomas Episcopal
Church, New York City. He is a member of the New York Chamber of Commerce,
Board of Trade, Chemist’s Club, Bankers Club of America, and the Union
League, Lotos, New York Athletic, Greenwich Country, and Indian Harbor
Yacht Clubs.
Mr. Gray married, in 1883, Miss
Georgia Christine Kinney, daughter of L. A. and Elizabeth Kinney, of New
York City. They had three children: Georgia (Mrs. William F. Hencken),
born 1885; Harold R., born 1890 (deceased); and William S., Jr., born
1898.
Mr. Gray’s city home is 39 West 53rd
Street, his country home at Greenwich, Conn.; his business address is 80
Maiden Lane. New York City.