Athletics Keydet Club Presents Spirit of VMI Award to Gray ’73 By Scott Belliveau ’83, Communications Officer
Garland Gray II ’73 receives the Spirit of VMI Award from the VMI Keydet Club at the VMI versus Chattanooga football game Oct. 9, 2021. Gray was awarded the honor for the services he has rendered VMI athletics.
Between the first and second quarters of VMI’s football game against the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga Oct. 9, the VMI Keydet Club recognized the service that Garland Gray II ’73 has rendered VMI athletics by presenting him with its highest honor, the Spirit of VMI Award. First presented in 1975, the Spirit of VMI Award recognizes outstanding service and support to VMI’s intercollegiate athletic program. In the award’s 46-year history, there have been fewer than 40 recipients. As a cadet, Gray participated in rat swimming and was involved in many other activities. A civil engineering major, he was consistently on the dean’s list and wore academic stars. He began working for his
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family’s company, Gray Lumber Company based in Waverly, Virginia, after he graduated from VMI. He currently serves as the president of Gray Lumber Company, which manages the family’s timberland and farmland portfolio. He also is a member of the board of directors of Grayco, which manages all the family’s assets. Gray has served VMI ever since his graduation. He served a term on the VMI Keydet Club Board of Governors from 1979-82 and became a member of the VMI Foundation Board of Trustees in July 2021. For almost five decades, Gray has been a consistent and visible leader in support of the Institute and the Corps of Cadets, giving generously
to advance every aspect of VMI’s extraordinary education. His support of VMI’s cadet-athletes has accelerated the progress of several teams, including VMI football, and provided many young men and women the experience of representing VMI at the highest level of intercollegiate sports, an experience that prepares them for lives of honorable leadership, high professional achievement, and selfless service. Gray’s support includes the establishment of the Elmon T. Gray ’46 Athletic Scholarship in 2015. That scholarship honors his father, who—besides being an industrialist, philanthropist, and long-serving state senator—was an enthusiastic fan and generous benefactor of VMI athletics who received the Spirit of VMI
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