Gray: "Today's seeds are tomorrow's flowers."
William “Pete” Gray, a joyful warrior for Black empowerment who crusaded to hold New Haven to its promise of grassroots participation in decisions about Dixwell’s future, has died at the age of 86.
He died on Monday from a sudden illness, according to his daughter, Lisa Gray.
Gray held leadership positions in New Haven for over 50 years, including stints as an alderman, the first Black elected representative for the then-majority-Black 19th Ward.
“Pete Gray was the Mayor of Dixwell,” said former Mayor and State Sen. Toni Harp. “He was an ardent advocate for the people who lived there. It is due to his leadership that Dixwell was transformed into the vibrant community it is today.
Gray founded the Dixwell Neighborhood Corporation in 1969. It was among a group of neighborhood-based nonprofits formed through New Haven’s “Model Cities” program to give people at the neighborhood level more of a say in economic development, housing, and public health issues after decades of Urban Renewal and Great Society programs often left them out. Gray continued running the program until 2018, the longest-serving director of that generation of neighborhood nonprofits. The corporation ran summer programs for kids, ran workforce development programs, advocated for senior services, organized an annual community Thanksgiving dinner, and launched health care programs. A sister nonprofit Gray ran built housing developments including McCabe Manor at Webster and Winchester, one of the first condominium developments aimed largely at working-middle-class African-Americans.
A visionary who took delight in confronting citywide powers or critics from outside the neighborhood for shortchanging Dixwell, Gray helped organize cutting-edge Black-led programs like Dixwell Opposes Alcoholism and, with Yale’s schools of nursing and public health, the AIDS-focused Dixwell Preventative Health Program.
He developed a lifelong conviction that people in Dixwell knew best what they needed, and they were best equipped to run the organizations tasked with tackling their challenges.
Officials planning projects ranging in Dixwell from Science Park to infill housing could count on Gray showing up at public meetings with neighbors in tow — and speaking his mind without mincing words.
“He spoke truth to power. He had no qualms calling people out — he was a staunch advocate for Black people and the Black community,” Lisa Gray said of her father. “His heart lived in Dixwell.”
Former Mayor John DeStefano called Gray “a worthy opponent and a valuable ally, sometimes on the same day.”
“Pete Gray was an authentic Dixwell son. He fought for that neighborhood. He was uncompromising for that neighborhood. And when Pete had to make a compromise, he did so knowing that tomorrow was another day,” DeStefano observed. “Pete belonged to a different time in our politics and our City. It is a time on whose shoulders that much of what is good in Dixwell today stands.” Science Park founder Henry “Sam” Chauncey credited Gray with“keeping our feet to the fire when we started Science Park in the early 1980s. While he could be a critic, it was always with a positive goal — making that community better. His guidance was part of why Science Park is what it is today” Gray ended up serving on the board of Science Park.
Gray mentored emerging leaders in other neighborhoods. Jackie Pullen Daniels called Gray “my inspiration” for her tenure as executive director of the West Rock Neighborhood Corporation in the 1980s and 1990s.
Gray offered her advice. He and his colleague Jack Valentine accompanied her to government meetings, chamber of commerce meetings. They backed her up when people would criticize her organization.
“I considered him my big brother,” Pullen Daniels said. “He was not a huge man. But he walked so proud! He had been there.”
One piece of advice Gray gave her — “Jackie, unless you build something in the community, you haven’t built nothing in people” — inspired her to form the sister West Rock Development Corporation, as Gray did in Dixwell. That organization build the 41-unit Valley Street complex now known as Valley Place.
William Gray was born on May 6, 1938, to Charles Gray and Mabel Brazier Gray. He and his five siblings grew up in the old Elm Haven public-housing projects, which were torn down in the 1990s to make way for what’s now the Monterey Homes. Friends started calling him Pete while playing ball on Gregory Street. The nickname stuck.
Gray attended the old Winchester School, then Troup Middle and Hillhouse High.
“I know at the gut level what the problems, needs and frustrations of our folks are,” having come up in the neighborhood, he later wrote.
After high school, he became the first Black graduate of Eli Whitney Technical School’s tool and die making program. After serving three years in the army, he worked for seven years at Majestic Silver Company, where he organized a union and fought for higher wages and better working conditions.
On the Board of Aldermen (as it was then called), he chaired the Health Committee, where he wrote laws tackling water and air pollution and rodent control. He once ran for the Democratic mayoral nomination. His slogan: “All the way with Pete Gray.” He served as a commissioner on the housing authority, helping to guide the rebuilding of the Elm Haven development where he grew up.
Gray came of age when ethnic patronage-oriented politics defined New Haven government. It was an era when people of different backgrounds fought with each other for spoils one day, worked alongside each other the next — and never hid from a tough conversation. Gray understood the game, when to call the question in public, when to negotiate behind closed doors. He always offered his views with confidence and without apology.
He settled long term into his position at the Dixwell Neighborhood Corporation, where in addition to running programs he organized a boycott against the Board of Ed to call for heating system repairs. (That school’s successor is Wexler-Grant, where the same concerns persist today.)
“Today’s seeds are tomorrow’s flowers” was one of his slogans used in reference to the corporation’s youth work.
He retired from the Dixwell Neighborhood Corporation in 2018. Up until his death he continued volunteering, according to Lisa: He trained Southern Connecticut State University nursing students in “how to engage with folks of color and seniors.” He fed homeless and indigent individuals at the St. Luke’s Episcopal Church breakfast pantry.
Gray was predeceased by Mildred Cuffee Gray, his loving and devoted wife of 55 years. He is survived by his daughter Lisa, his son Steven, and grandchildren Chase Gray and Synclaire Cruel.
His funeral is scheduled to take place at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church at 111 Whalley Ave. on Aug. 15 beginning at 11 a.m.