Below is a copy of Jerry’s Rotary Emeritus Award presentation by Bob Buchanan.

Jerry McNicoll Gray, M.D., F.C.A.P., was born in Jamestown, New York, and grew up in Monroe, Michigan. He came to the University of Michigan in 1952 to enter the College of Engineering, then graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School with distinction in 1959. Next, Jerry interned and had his specialty training in pathology at the UMMC. Following his residency, he entered the U. S. Army to serve as Assistant Chief of Anatomic and Clinical Pathology at Walter Reed General Hospital in Washington, D.C.

Jerry returned to Ann Arbor to enter pathology practice at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital where he had a number of appointments, Medical Director of the Blood Bank, Chairman of the Transfusion Committee, and Secretary of the Medical Staff. In addition to being board certified in anatomic and clinical pathology, he is also board certified in hematology, immunohematology and blood banking by the American Board of Pathology. Jerry has authored or co-authored 41 scientific publications in referred medical journals, is a fellow in the College of American Pathologists (F.C.A.P.)

Jerry married Mary Kay Caris during their undergraduate days. Jerry and Mary Kay have three children, all graduates from the University of Michigan. Their daughter Kathryn Brogan is married to Dr. John Brogan, Academic Dean at Western Seminary in Holland, Michigan. They have two children. Their son Bill is a principal in Reinhart Partners, an investment firm in Mequon, Wisconsin. Bill’s wife, Jo, is an independent TV producer. Bill and Jo have three children. Their daughter Jeanne, a social worker, has one daughter.

Jerry can have a lighter side. He had an “old man” mask that he used to terrify the neighborhood at Halloween. Once at SJMH he put on his mask, climbed onto a gurney in the morgue covered with a sheet. Then an assistant asked Dr. Fred Holtz to check on a new cadaver. As Dr. Holtz pulled the sheet back, he got a terrible shock as Jerry sat up and cried out in a shrill voice.

Turning to Service above Self, Jerry has a long list of community service but one is outstanding. Jerry and Mary Kay made seven trips to Kenya over a 10 year period as volunteer medical missionaries at Kijabe Hospital in Kenya. Kijabe is a full-service Christian mission hospital that cares for both Kenyans and missionaries over a wide area of West Africa. Here, Jerry conducted the hospital pathology service which served a wide part of Kenya. He initiated a new technology in which complicated tissue specimens could be micro-photographed, then transmitted electronically over the Internet to consulting pathologists anywhere in the world for review. Jerry often sat in his cottage on Higgins Lake, reviewed and diagnosed specimens sent from West Africa.

Jerry has a wide range of other talents, an accomplished downhill and water skier, boater, skilled photographer. In retirement, he has continued to be intellectually curious by taking courses at the University of Michigan primarily in classical studies. These include a several courses in English literature, development of the English language, Shakespeare, etc.

Jerry is a dedicated church servant, has been ordained as both a deacon and ruling elder at First Presbyterian Church and served as a Stephan minister. Jerry may be quiet but his Faith, his spirit is rock-solid, so he is truly a “go to” guy when others need his help.

In closing, his son William Gray wrote, “Jerry is a special person, a special husband, father, grandfather, and friend. We have seen this throughout his life as he has taken care of family as well as strangers, always doing whatever he can for whomever he can without concern for his own needs. He is an amazing man.” His daughter Kathryn Brogan wrote, “I always considered my Dad to be one of the smartest people I know. If he puts his mind to something he can usually figure out how to do it and do it well.”

Jerry was a loyal Rotarian from 1976 to 2018 when he moved to Holland, MI. Here is a link to his obituary https://www.hollandsentinel.com/obituaries/ppet1213908

A life well-lived. (Remarks by Bob Buchanan, Nov. 30, 2016)