Wellington B. Gray was a native of Albany, Albany County, New York. In 1941, he enlisted for service spending most of WWII in the Pacific Theater. In 1947, he graduated from Kutztown State College with a Bachelor of Science in Art Education. From 1947-1949 he was the art supervisor in the Connellsville, Pennsylvania public school system and also completed requirements for the master’s degree in art education from New York University, along with a minor in administration and supervision.
During the five year period from 1949 to 1954, he served as the art director from Highland Park Township High School in Illinois. Upon completion of the doctoral program from New York University in 1954, he became director of art education at Edinboro State College in Pennsylvania, and was a lecturer in fine arts at Alliance College in Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania.
In 1956, Gray joined the East Carolina faculty as a professor of art. In 1962, the School of Art was established, he was appointed dean. During his tenure, the East Carolina School of Art became the first program in North Carolina fully accredited by the National Association for Schools of Art. When Gray first arrived at East Carolina, the Department of Art had only eight faculty members. At the time of his passing, there were forty faculty members who instructed more than eight-hundred students each year.
Gray was a member of the North Carolina Association of Educators, the North Carolina Art Education Association, the National Art Education Association, the National Society of Interior Designers, and the American Institute of Interior Designers, the International Association of Deans of Fine Arts, the American Association of University Professors, and Phi Delta Kappa. He was also a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve.
For many years, Gray served as a consultant to the North Carolina Department of Community Colleges in art programs. The Prentice-Hall Publishing Company, and Colorcast and Design Quarterly. He wrote articles for the Pennsylvania School Journal, the Western Arts Association Bulletin, Journal of Educational Research, Illinois Education, and North Carolina Education, and was the author of one book, Student Teaching in Art, published by the International Textbook Company.
He and his wife, Norma W. Gray, had two sons, Bruce Wellington and Brian Erwin Gray. The 6,000 square foot exhibit area located in the Jenkins Fine Arts Center is dedicated to his memory.
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Citation Information
Title: Wellington B. Gray
Author: John A. Tucker, PhD
Date of Publication: 6/25/2019