Gordon L. Gray, 87, Temple professor

Gordon L. Gray, 87, former chairman of Temple University's Department of Radio, Television, and Film, died of pancreatic cancer Wednesday, Oct. 26, at the Bodwell Hospice in Brunswick, Maine.

Born in Hampton, Iowa, Dr. Gray served in the Army from 1943 to 1946.

After earning a bachelor's degree in theater at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, in 1948, he earned a master's in 1951 and a doctorate in 1957, both in communications at Northwestern University.

His son, Jonathan, said he was a radio announcer and newsman from 1948 to 1950 and then a broadcast coordinator for NBC-TV.

Dr. Gray began his academic career at Michigan State University, where he was an associate professor of television and radio from 1954 to 1967.

He was a Fulbright Scholar at Leeds University in England in the 1965-66 academic year.

Dr. Gray joined the Temple faculty in 1967 as a full professor of communications and chairman of the Department of Radio, Television, and Film, which had been formed that year.

Robert R. Smith, dean of Temple's School of Communications and Theater from 1978 to 1996, said in a phone interview that from 1967 to 1979, Dr. Gray was chairman of the Radio, Television, and Film department, which was part of Smith's school.

After stepping down as department chairman, he taught broadcast news and management until retiring.

Smith said that, because of what Dr. Gray had accomplished in the 1960s and '70s, Dr. Gray's "was the largest department of its kind in the country" in student numbers in the 1980s.

"Partly," Smith said, the growth happened because "the field became popular."

But, he said, "Temple grew because Gordon was able to recruit outstanding people, really strong faculty members from other universities."

And that was because "he didn't try to be a star."

In theatrical terms, Smith said, "he enjoyed setting the stage so that others could perform to their very best."

Dr. Gray was a gentleman, Smith said, "in his speech and manner and dress," wearing shirt, tie, and jacket during office hours.

"He and his wife had a passion for antiques," Smith said, and as they moved from a house in Wyndmoor to one in Glenside, from one in New Castle, Del., to their last in Maine, "each room in their homes was decorated like a museum.

"They loved English 19th-century furnishings."

Another passion was New Orleans jazz, Smith said, and about once a year, "Gordon went down and gave himself a seminar in that kind of music."

Dr. Gray was a local vice president of the fraternal organization Broadcast Pioneers.

In addition to his son, Dr. Gray is survived by his wife, Barbara. Another son, David, died in 1998.

A memorial service is planned for an undetermined date in Brunswick.