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Bowman Gray Sr. Bowman Gray Sr. (May 1, 1874 – July 7, 1935) was president and chairman of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and a major benefactor of the medical school of Wake Forest College which now bears his name.
Apr 28, 2023 · Bowman Gray was the third, and oldest to survive infancy, of six children born to James Alexander Gray (1846-1918) and his wife Aurelia Elizabeth Bowman (1848-1914). Bowman Gray attended the University of North Carolina for a year, but left to become a teller in the Wachovia Bank, which his father and maternal grandfather had founded.
- May 01, 1874
- Kevin Lawrence Hanit
1 May 1874–7 July 1935. Bowman Gray, tobacco executive, was born in Winston, the son of James Alexander and Aurelia Bowman Gray. He attended local schools and was enrolled in The University of North Carolina for the year 1890–91. Withdrawing, he became a clerk in the Wachovia National Bank of which his father was cashier and one of the ...
- The Building
- Bowman Gray, Sr.
- “The Pride of Carolina”
- Training of Naval Pilots at Bowman Gray Memorial Pool
- A Silenced History?
- Notes on The Material
- Troubled Waters…
- … and Lasting Memories
When Bowman Gray Memorial pool opened in 1938 as part of the new Woolen Gymnasium, UNC students had waited for a pool on campus for over a decade, since UNC´s first pool, Bynum Gymnasium pool closed in 1924. The planning for UNC´s oldest existing pool started in 1936, while the actual construction began in April 1937. J.A. Jones Construction Compan...
The dedication ceremony revealed the donors of the new pool, as well as its future name: it would be named after UNC alumnus Bowman Gray, Sr. as his family donated a large sum after his death in 1935. His two sons, both UNC alumni as well, and his wife wanted to honor the late Bowman Gray, Sr., with the donation that covered a large part of the cos...
However, equipping all the students with swimming material and maintaining a large building was expensive as well, and the $400,000 building did still require funds for upkeep. For this reason, the university decided to raise student fees by $5 per person, beginning the semester following the pool opening in order to render “services at the Gymnasi...
Not only was the pool a site of recreation and competition, but Bowman Gray Memorial pool was also a training site for naval troops during the Second World War. University-President Frank P. Graham, who was closely associated with the Roosevelt administration, influenced the U.S. Navy´s decision to establish UNC Chapel Hill as one of the newly auth...
Segregated Waters
Harvey E. Beech was among the first four African-American students at UNC Chapel Hill, when they enrolled in the North Carolina School of Law. Beech´s story is ultimately connected to the swimming pools at UNC due to the discrimination he experienced there. Mistaken for a Brazilian, he was given a swimming privilege card after the mandatory physical examination, like almost every other new student at UNC. After the officials at UNC realized the mistake, he was asked to return it: “They said t...
“It´s integrated now”
Coincidentally, Gordon Gray, Bowman Gray Sr.´s son, was UNC´s president during the struggle over school desegregation. Whether Gordon Gray actually supported desegregation is difficult to determine. However, his official statement was that “the university could follow no other course” than to allow black students on campus after the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education ruling and increasing applications from black students seeking admission to UNC. The first African-American students admitte...
Much more could be said of Bowman Gray Memorial Pool and its history transcends this narrative. The Daily Tar Heel is one of the most helpful and interesting sources for exploring the pool´s history. The campus-newspaper covered all major and many minor events including the first announcement of the construction of a new pool, athletic successes an...
Bowman Gray Memorial Pool is an example of a campus building that is connected to great successes, competitions, fond memories of play and recreation, but nevertheless, it is indispensably connected to a history of exclusion and racial discrimination. Unfortunately, the history of pool segregation and desegregation on campus is barely mentioned in ...
The building structure of the pool has not only witnessed change, but also experienced it. Since 1938, Bowman Gray Memorial pool underwent multiple major and minor modifications and renovations. In the 1970s, the pool underwent renovation to “remove a portion of the dividing wall in existing pool and installing a movable section.”Thanks to this alt...
A native of Forsyth County, North Carolina, Bowman Gray, Sr., was the son of James Alexander Gray, one of the founders of Wachovia Bank. Gray was a student at the university from 1890 to 1891, and began his career as a salesman for R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in 1895. The firm promoted him to vice-president in 1912 and to president in 1924.
Bowman Gray, Jr., was born in 1907 in Baltimore, M.D. to Bowman, Sr., and Nathalie Fontaine Lyons Gray. He attended the Reynolda School in Winston-Salem, Woodberry Forest School in Virginia, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1929, Bowman, Jr., became a salesman with RJR and then vice-president (1949).
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Bowman Gray, Sr. "was the benefactor whose bequest made possible the medical school's (Wake Forest University School of Medicine) move from the town of Wake Forest to Winston-Salem and its expansion to a four-year program." Biography "Gray was born May 1, 1874 in Forsyth County.
