Quick Facts
Biography
Very Rev John Rodger Gray VRD ThM (1913-1984) was a Scottish minister serving in Dunblane Cathedral who was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1977.
Life
He was born in Coatbridge in 1913 and educated locally before going to Glasgow High School. He then studied Economics at Glasgow University graduating in 1934. He then had a change of heart and studied Divinity for three years, also doing further postgraduate study under scholarships at both Yale and Princeton in the United States.
Returning to Britain in the Second World War he served as a Naval Chaplain from 1941. After the war he was given his first church, as minister of St. Stephens Buccleuch in Glasgow. In 1960 the church merged with St Margarets, Blythswood.
In 1966 he was translated to the highly prestigious post of minister of Dunblane Cathedral in Central Scotland, living in temporary accommodation until a new manse was constructed for him and his family.
He retired in April 1984 but died only three months later on
Family
In 1952 he was married to Dr Sheila Mary Gray (1928-2013) a GP. His wife waas author of "Annus Mirabilis, Memories of a Moderator's Wife".
Their three sons included James Gray MP.
Publications
- The Sermons of Rev John R. Gray 1961-1983
- Hearts are Trumps (1977)