Paul Gray

Brief Biography

Paul Gray was an information systems pioneer and the thirty-ninth President of The Institute of Management Sciences (TIMS). Born in 1930, Gray studied mathematics at New York University and the University of Michigan, earning a BA and MA in 1950 and 1954, respectively. While working on his masters at Michigan, he worked as a research assistant and assistant technical editor at the university’s Willow Run Laboratories, working closely with Robert E. Machol. Gray left the labs in 1955 to work as a Nuclear Engineer for Convair-Fort Worth, an airline manufacturing firm under the ownership of General Dynamics. After three years, he joined Solar Aircraft in San Diego, California as a reports and proposals writer.

Gray returned to graduate school in 1960 at Purdue University where he studied electrical engineering. After receiving his second masters degree in 1962, he joined the Stanford Research Institute as a Senior Research Engineer. It was at Stanford where he met and studied under Frederick W. Hillier, a recent operations research PhD. After Gray received his PhD in 1967, he held professorial positons at Stanford, the Georgia Institute of Techology, the University of Southern California, and Southern Methodist University before settling at Claremont Graduate University in 1983. At Claremont, he served as Chair of the Center for Information Science and Technology for eleven years and again in the fall of 1997.

Gray’s research and publications focused on data warehousing, business intelligence, decision support systems, and knowledge management. He was a prolific writer, having authored/edited sixteen books. Gray’s works touch upon a wide array of subjects including developments in information and decision processes, telecommunications, the Interactive Financial Planning System (IFPS), the management of information systems, and managerial decision making. 

A dedicated member of the professional OR community, Gray held a number of positions with OR societies. He served as Vice President and Secretary of TIMS and was President of Omega Rho, the international honors society for operations research and the management science, from 1988 to 1990. It was during Gray’s tenure as president from 1992 to 1993, that a merger committee, chaired by John D. C. Little, formulated the idea for the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) and paved the way for the 1995 merger between TIMS and the Operations Research Society of America. Additionally, Gray was the founding editor of Communications of the Association for Information Systems (AIS) and held that position for eight years.

Gray was an inaugural Fellow of both INFORMS and AIS. In 2002, AIS presented him the Lyons Electronic Office (LEO) Award for his outstanding contributions in the field of information systems. Gray was also a recipient of the George E. Kimball Medal for dedicated service to operations research societies. Though Gray retired in 2001, he continued to teach, research, and consult in a less official fashion. Prior to his passing in 2012, he also served as curator of the Paul Gray PC Museum at Claremont.  

Other Biographies

Wikipedia Entry for Paul Gray (information technology)

Claremont Graduate University Paul Gray PC Museum: About the Museum: The Wonder of the PC Museum. June 27, 2018. (link)

INFORMS. Miser-Harris Presidential Gallery: Paul Gray. Accessed June 10, 2015. (link)

Teradate University Network. Advisory Board: Emeritus Member Paul Gray, PhD. Accessed June 27, 2018. (link)