Dear friends,
So excited to share Robert Gray’s story with you all. Those of you who know Robert know what we mean when we tell you that Robert has lived a life of faith, meaning, sacrifice, and commitment. He’s made a difference in our city and we hope if you don’t know Robert you will get to know him better through his story here.
Grateful for you all,
Don & Greg
So excited to share Robert Gray’s story with you all. Those of you who know Robert know what we mean when we tell you that Robert has lived a life of faith, meaning, sacrifice, and commitment. He’s made a difference in our city and we hope if you don’t know Robert you will get to know him better through his story here.
Grateful for you all,
Don & Greg
BACKGROUND
Mostly swallowed by the sprawl of Indianapolis on the southeast, lies the little burg of Wanamaker, once primarily farmland. It was to there that Robert Gray’s grandfather, Samuel Gray Sr., migrated from Arkansas in the 1940s, and the chickens, geese, and pigs became bit players in a larger story that God is still telling in his grandson’s life.
Gray’s earliest memories surround his granddad, a dusty old Ford truck, and the whole cycle of life on a farm. It was in that truck every day that he had the attention of an adult who loved God and loved him. They worked hard and talked long, and Gray was shaped.
“He was my most important mentor,” says Gray, “and my work ethic and serving spirit come from him.”
In many ways, his play was work. As a youngster, he worked with the animals in addition helping friends on neighboring farms bale hay or harvest corn. He grew muscles, both literal and spiritual, that sustained him in harder years to come.
Just as middle school loomed, Gray’s parents went through a divorce and he moved twice in fairly close succession; once to Franklin, south of Wanamaker, and finally to a home on the northwest side of Indy where he attended Northwest High School.
To say he encountered culture shock would be too mild. It was active racism, first experienced as a young black child in an all-white neighborhood in Franklin where integration and bussing were the going thing, then as a young black man in a mostly black community.
“I looked different, sounded different, and spoke different,” he says, “I seemed a spectacle to my peers, both black and white.”
But there were other things about Gray that were different too: he had those muscles, a love for God, and a love of service. So despite the words that hurt, the crosses burned in his yard, and the rocks thrown at him on the playground, he found a way to survive and even thrive.
At a very young age, before he really knew what it meant, he memorized James 1:2-3: Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
“I struggled, of course, but I also began to believe that God was in all this,” he says. “So I began the habit of resting in Scripture, especially James 1:2-3.”
After his parents divorced Gray, raised Methodist, began attending a Baptist church. There he was baptized, and it is in the Baptist denomination that he later became a teacher and preaching pastor.
“My life experience in those years really forced me to rely on God,” he says, “to lean on a source outside of myself.”
And so his muscles, both literal and spiritual, marched with him into high school where, between his talent in basketball and his talent in academics, he eventually became a popular “nerd athlete,” as he calls it, twice named Prom King, and also voted “Most Likely to Succeed” by his senior class.
Learning to develop relationships was key to his shaping. His passion for helping others through service really began to set him apart. He would get to the gym early and sweep it before the coach arrived; he would tutor teammates so they could avoid athletic suspension; he would listen to others talk about problems and try to work out solutions between kids and other kids, or between kids and teachers.
Then, at 17, he got his first job at Little Caesars, where, by the end of his senior year, he was functioning as the manager without even knowing it. He just knew the boss trusted him with employees, the store, the accounting, and the night deposits, which he made by bicycle after closing at 2 am. Of course it was wrong, and his boss was fired on the spot when a regional manager dropped in unannounced and witnessed Gray running the store. But the business world began to take notice of his work ethic and leadership ability.
Upon graduation, there was a potential basketball scholarship to Rose Hulman, but he declined because “there were no girls there.” Instead of going straight to college, he started out at Professional Careers Institute where he obtained a two-year certificate in computer programming and then, two years later, graduated from IUPUI with an Associates in Computer Science.
Using his new skills, he thrived at Lily Industrial Coatings, where he wasn’t old enough to rent a car but found a way to travel the country expanding the company into 25 new markets, developing vendor relationships, and ensuring all systems for the company were Y2K compliant.
He then oversaw network infrastructure for The Finish Line, which eventually included that corporation’s call center. After another promotion, he began overseeing emerging technology while the company exploded from 200 locations to 900 over a four-year period.
Adult life has toggled between hardship and success, just like his early life. He’s said goodbye to good jobs due to downsizing and right sizing and workplace politics. He’s encountered the unexpected suffering of divorce in his own life, when a marriage of seven years seemingly dissolved with the words, “I just don’t love you anymore.” It happened during the same seven years he heard a call into preaching ministry at their church, and the divorce became another hardship where he rested in James 1:2-3.
Through all the trials, he’s seen God’s hand at work, and seen redemption and joy return as he kept on serving and began to rest in another portion of Scripture, the book of Job, jotting his notes into a document he called, “No Pain, No Gain.” Later, he was asked to teach the material at a conference and he witnessed God using his pain to minister to other men’s lives.
“Men typically do not like to talk about hardships and adversity in life, but they need to,” says Gray. “It's the only way to leave the past behind and move forward with life.”
Now married for 20 years to Erica, Gray is a happy husband and father to two sons, one a freshman in college, the other a junior in high school.
Currently, Gray serves as senior director of corporate relations for Firefly Children and Family Alliance, an Indianapolis-based social services non-profit. Gray has morphed from technology to raising funds for a cause he believes deeply in – the success of vulnerable children and families.
He maintains close relationships with his three best friends from high school. Other deep friendships come from church, New Horizons Indy, where he and Erica have attended for 16 years and both serve as associate ministers. Gray leads the hospitality ministry there as well. He’s made friends through his service on the Board of Directors of Outreach Inc., and the Board of Trustees at University High School. Previous coaching stints at Oaks Academy (while his kids attended) and summer basketball leagues also helped grow his friend-network, and he is still connected with a young man he mentored through Big Brothers between ages 9 and 18.
Gray is now 55. He’s been faithful to God and the gifts entrusted to him for service and leadership long enough to know that there’s more to life than trials. His heartbeat for the city and C-7 is that other men find their way through trials toward redemption too – and given his passion for helping others, he’ll make time for you if you need that kind of encouragement today.
GRAY'S IDEAS FOR A BETTER INDY
ROBERT GRAY TRIVIA
Favorite hobby besides work? Golf
Go to snack & beverage? Twisted Honey BBQ Fritos & Sprite
Favorite restaurant, locally? Xtrordinary Pizza in Wanamaker
Favorite places for a vacation? The beach. Wants to go back to Hawaii someday.
Secret Dream? “To see my boys succeed more in life than me, not only financially but as men.”
Connect with Robert at rgray@fireflyin.org
Mostly swallowed by the sprawl of Indianapolis on the southeast, lies the little burg of Wanamaker, once primarily farmland. It was to there that Robert Gray’s grandfather, Samuel Gray Sr., migrated from Arkansas in the 1940s, and the chickens, geese, and pigs became bit players in a larger story that God is still telling in his grandson’s life.
Gray’s earliest memories surround his granddad, a dusty old Ford truck, and the whole cycle of life on a farm. It was in that truck every day that he had the attention of an adult who loved God and loved him. They worked hard and talked long, and Gray was shaped.
“He was my most important mentor,” says Gray, “and my work ethic and serving spirit come from him.”
In many ways, his play was work. As a youngster, he worked with the animals in addition helping friends on neighboring farms bale hay or harvest corn. He grew muscles, both literal and spiritual, that sustained him in harder years to come.
Just as middle school loomed, Gray’s parents went through a divorce and he moved twice in fairly close succession; once to Franklin, south of Wanamaker, and finally to a home on the northwest side of Indy where he attended Northwest High School.
To say he encountered culture shock would be too mild. It was active racism, first experienced as a young black child in an all-white neighborhood in Franklin where integration and bussing were the going thing, then as a young black man in a mostly black community.
“I looked different, sounded different, and spoke different,” he says, “I seemed a spectacle to my peers, both black and white.”
But there were other things about Gray that were different too: he had those muscles, a love for God, and a love of service. So despite the words that hurt, the crosses burned in his yard, and the rocks thrown at him on the playground, he found a way to survive and even thrive.
At a very young age, before he really knew what it meant, he memorized James 1:2-3: Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
“I struggled, of course, but I also began to believe that God was in all this,” he says. “So I began the habit of resting in Scripture, especially James 1:2-3.”
After his parents divorced Gray, raised Methodist, began attending a Baptist church. There he was baptized, and it is in the Baptist denomination that he later became a teacher and preaching pastor.
“My life experience in those years really forced me to rely on God,” he says, “to lean on a source outside of myself.”
And so his muscles, both literal and spiritual, marched with him into high school where, between his talent in basketball and his talent in academics, he eventually became a popular “nerd athlete,” as he calls it, twice named Prom King, and also voted “Most Likely to Succeed” by his senior class.
Learning to develop relationships was key to his shaping. His passion for helping others through service really began to set him apart. He would get to the gym early and sweep it before the coach arrived; he would tutor teammates so they could avoid athletic suspension; he would listen to others talk about problems and try to work out solutions between kids and other kids, or between kids and teachers.
Then, at 17, he got his first job at Little Caesars, where, by the end of his senior year, he was functioning as the manager without even knowing it. He just knew the boss trusted him with employees, the store, the accounting, and the night deposits, which he made by bicycle after closing at 2 am. Of course it was wrong, and his boss was fired on the spot when a regional manager dropped in unannounced and witnessed Gray running the store. But the business world began to take notice of his work ethic and leadership ability.
Upon graduation, there was a potential basketball scholarship to Rose Hulman, but he declined because “there were no girls there.” Instead of going straight to college, he started out at Professional Careers Institute where he obtained a two-year certificate in computer programming and then, two years later, graduated from IUPUI with an Associates in Computer Science.
Using his new skills, he thrived at Lily Industrial Coatings, where he wasn’t old enough to rent a car but found a way to travel the country expanding the company into 25 new markets, developing vendor relationships, and ensuring all systems for the company were Y2K compliant.
He then oversaw network infrastructure for The Finish Line, which eventually included that corporation’s call center. After another promotion, he began overseeing emerging technology while the company exploded from 200 locations to 900 over a four-year period.
Adult life has toggled between hardship and success, just like his early life. He’s said goodbye to good jobs due to downsizing and right sizing and workplace politics. He’s encountered the unexpected suffering of divorce in his own life, when a marriage of seven years seemingly dissolved with the words, “I just don’t love you anymore.” It happened during the same seven years he heard a call into preaching ministry at their church, and the divorce became another hardship where he rested in James 1:2-3.
Through all the trials, he’s seen God’s hand at work, and seen redemption and joy return as he kept on serving and began to rest in another portion of Scripture, the book of Job, jotting his notes into a document he called, “No Pain, No Gain.” Later, he was asked to teach the material at a conference and he witnessed God using his pain to minister to other men’s lives.
“Men typically do not like to talk about hardships and adversity in life, but they need to,” says Gray. “It's the only way to leave the past behind and move forward with life.”
Now married for 20 years to Erica, Gray is a happy husband and father to two sons, one a freshman in college, the other a junior in high school.
Currently, Gray serves as senior director of corporate relations for Firefly Children and Family Alliance, an Indianapolis-based social services non-profit. Gray has morphed from technology to raising funds for a cause he believes deeply in – the success of vulnerable children and families.
He maintains close relationships with his three best friends from high school. Other deep friendships come from church, New Horizons Indy, where he and Erica have attended for 16 years and both serve as associate ministers. Gray leads the hospitality ministry there as well. He’s made friends through his service on the Board of Directors of Outreach Inc., and the Board of Trustees at University High School. Previous coaching stints at Oaks Academy (while his kids attended) and summer basketball leagues also helped grow his friend-network, and he is still connected with a young man he mentored through Big Brothers between ages 9 and 18.
Gray is now 55. He’s been faithful to God and the gifts entrusted to him for service and leadership long enough to know that there’s more to life than trials. His heartbeat for the city and C-7 is that other men find their way through trials toward redemption too – and given his passion for helping others, he’ll make time for you if you need that kind of encouragement today.
GRAY'S IDEAS FOR A BETTER INDY
- TRUST IN THE LORD. “If the people in our city and state will start with Proverbs 3:5-6, it’s going to help us,” says Gray. (Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and he will make your paths straight.) He believes learning to rest in that truth is even more important than memorizing it.
- INVEST IN AUTHENTIC RELATIONSHIPS. The secrets Gray learned about developing long-lasting relationships have helped him along the path, from a child facing racism, to a young adult needing encouragement about losses in life, right up to the present. Real, authentic relationships will sustain you when others fail, he believes.
- BEGIN WITH A GIVER-FIRST MENTALITY. “All of my business career, I’ve made it a habit to give first of time, talent and treasure,” he says. “We do reap what we sow, and making giving my focus has made all the difference.”
ROBERT GRAY TRIVIA
Favorite hobby besides work? Golf
Go to snack & beverage? Twisted Honey BBQ Fritos & Sprite
Favorite restaurant, locally? Xtrordinary Pizza in Wanamaker
Favorite places for a vacation? The beach. Wants to go back to Hawaii someday.
Secret Dream? “To see my boys succeed more in life than me, not only financially but as men.”
Connect with Robert at rgray@fireflyin.org
