Carl M. Gray

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Carl M. Gray

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Carl M. Gray, often called “the Dean of Indiana Lawyers,” was born in the tiny Indiana town of Portersville (Dubois County) on September 3, 1895. He graduated from Petersburg High School, in Pike County, in 1915. His early ambition was to attend Purdue University, but when he saw his cousin, a Pike County attorney, defend a client at a local murder trial, Gray decided he wanted to be a lawyer. He enrolled at Indiana University in 1915 and began taking classes in law. His road to a degree, however, would be circuitous at best. When the US entered World War I, Gray enlisted in the Army Medical Corps. Once the war was won, Gray returned to IU to finish his law studies, but eight hours short of his degree, he left the school to begin his legal career in partnership with former Indiana Congressman William E. Cox. Gray would practice law for more than twenty-five years, before deciding, in the late 1940s, to resume his legal education at the law school by taking part-time classes. He continued in this manner, off and on, throughout the 1950s, until finally completing the requirements for his LL.B. degree in 1961 – more than 40 years after he started and at the age of 66.

During his career, Gray served as Pike County Prosecuting Attorney (1923-1925), as a State Senator (1927-1931), and as President of the Indiana Bar Association (1943-1944). He also served on the Indiana Judicial Reform Commission (1966-1976), where he helped draft a new judicial article for the state constitution; the Civil Code Study Commission which wrote rules of civil procedure; and was a member of the Indiana University Board of Trustees (1966-1975). He received the 1966 Indiana Bar Association’s Distinguished Service Award, the 1978 American Bar Association’s Fifty-Year Award, and twice received the Sagamore of the Wabash award. Gray was presented with the IU Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumni Service Award in 1976, and the University awarded him an honorary LL.D. degree in 1981.

Carl M. Gray was one of 1985's founding members of the Indiana University School of Law Academy of Law Alumni Fellows. Gray died, at the age of 93, on April 7, 1989.

Keywords

Maurer Alumni, Academy of Law Alumni Fellows

Disciplines

Law | Legal Biography | Legal Profession

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Carl M. Gray
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