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.