Influential leader in the railroad industry.
1867-1939 | Artist: Othmar J. Hoffler (1893-1954)
Impact & Accomplishments
Carl R. Gray began his fifty-six-year career in the railroad industry as a fifteen-year-old sweeping boy in a small town station and ended it as president and vice chairman of the Union Pacific Railroad.
Born in Princeton, Arkansas, Gray served as president of the Great Northern Railway (1912-1914) and the Western Maryland Railway (1914-1919), before joining the Union Pacific. He supervised the nation’s railroads during World War I, under the U. S. Railroad Administration, and he helped form the Association of American Railways in 1934.
At the time of his death, he was serving as a special policy advisor to President Roosevelt—work that led to the Transportation Act of 1940. In 1920, Gray established an extensive Union Pacific scholarship program to students enrolling in agriculture schools in states served by the line.
Did You Know?
United States Maritime Commission honored Gray by launching vessel USS Carl R Gray.
USS Carl R Gray was a 441.5 foot long Armadillo Class Mobile Station Tanker: a Maritime Commission type (Z-ET1-S-C3) hull, under Maritime Commission contract (MCE hull 1906), at California Shipbuilding Co., Wilmington, CA , World War Two. Photo source: navsource.org.