Gray, Edwin J.: Files, 1981-1982

Office of Policy Development; Director, 1981; Office of Policy Information; Director, 1982

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Scope and Content Note

The Edwin Gray collection consists of six series: SERIES I: Subject File; SERIES II: Cabinet Councils; SERIES III: Edwin Meese Material; SERIES IV: Administrative Material; SERIES V: Lo Anne Wagner Material; and SERIES VI: 1980 Reagan/Bush Campaign Material.

Several groups of material were transferred from the Kevin Hopkins collection to Edwin Gray. These consisted of legislation and Congressional reports distributed by the White House Office of Legislative Affairs and the Office of Management and Budget. Included were economic indicators provided to Congress from the Council of Economic Advisers. These were added to Series I.

The Cabinet Council material includes material for the Cabinet Council on Commerce and Trade (CCCT), Cabinet Council on Economic Affairs (CCEA), Cabinet Council on Food and Agriculture (CCFA), Cabinet Council on Human Resources (CCHR), and the Cabinet Council on Natural Resources and the Environment (CCNRE).

The Edwin Meese Material includes mostly speeches and speech statistics and background material provided to Counsellor to the President, Edwin Meese.

The 1980 Reagan/Bush Campaign material consists of work product and public items created during the 1980 Reagan Presidential campaign. Grey brought this material with him to the White House and appears to have used some of the material during his time in the Office of Policy Development. In 1983, after Gray left the White House, this material was examined by the FBI in connection with the "debate gate" controversy over how the Reagan Campaign obtained the Jimmy Carter campaign strategy documents.

Series List

SERIES I: Subject File

SERIES II: CABINET COUNCILS

SERIES III: Edwin Meese Material

SERIES IV: Administrative Material

SERIES V: Lo Anne Wagner Material

SERIES VI: 1980 Reagan/Bush Campaign Material

Subseries A: Speeches, Remarks and Statements

Subseries B: Campaign Communication

Subseries C: Subject File

Biography

Biography

Edwin J. Gray is a pubic relations and public affairs professional with long-term ties to President Ronald Reagan. He was the Chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board from 1984 to mid-1987.

Edwin J. Gray was born on August 22, 1935 in Modesto, California where he grew up. He attended California State University and the University of Barcelona, Spain.

Edwin Gray worked for most of his career as a public relations and public affairs professional with various companies, particularly financial institutions. Gray was always active in supporting Republican politics and local California Republican politicians.

Gray's work with Reagan began in 1966 when he was part of the press team for Reagan's first gubernatorial inauguration. He worked for the gubernatorial press office from 1967-1973. He started as an assistant press secretary, became an associate press secretary in 1968, and served as the Governor's press secretary in Sacramento, California from 1972-1973.

Leaving Governor Reagan's staff, Gray became the Senior Vice President/Director of Public Affairs for the San Diego Federal Savings & Loan. This thrift institution granted Gray a leave of absence throughout his time at the White House.

Gray supported Reagan in his 1976 run for the presidency and in 1980 he served first as Reagan's press secretary for a four month period, and later as deputy chief of staff for the Reagan-Bush Committee. He was associate director of policy coordination for human services in the office of the President-elect in 1980-1981.

On January 16, 1981, President-elect Reagan appointed Gray deputy assistant to the president for policy development. Serving under the Assistant to the President for Policy Development, Martin Anderson, Gray was also appointed Director of the Office of Policy Development. When Anderson left the White House in early 1982, Gray was made director of a separate office, the Office of Policy Information. While working in the Reagan White House, he helped to convinced the Reagan administration to support the Depository Institutions Act of 1982. He left the Reagan White House in August 1982 to return to San Diego Federal, now known as Great American Federal Savings Bank.

Gray was nominated in February 1983 as a member of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, becoming the Chairman of the Board in 1984.

As Chairman, Gray, started notifying officials in Congress, the White House and the press that there was trouble in the savings and loan industry. He had sent correspondence to Ed Meese at the White House when he returned to San Diego Federal in 1982 about this issue. At this early stage of the eventual savings and loan crisis, no one appeared to listen to these warnings.

Beginning in 1985, he feared the savings industry's risky investment practices were exposing the government's insurance funds to huge losses. Gray instituted a rule whereby savings associations could hold no more than ten percent of their assets in "direct investments," and were thus prohibited from taking ownership positions in certain financial entities and instruments.

As chairman, the strict regulations he put in place made him controversial. In 1983, Donald Regan, White House Chief of Staff, tried to push Gray out of the job. As he continued to sound alarms and push regulations Gray vexed savings and loan executives, including the most visible of them, Charles Keating, the chairman of Lincoln Savings and Loan Association. Intervention on behalf of Keating by five members of the United States Senate at an April 1987 meeting would be at the center of the Keating Five controversy. Gray resigned soon after this meeting.

Gray returned to the savings and loan industry after leaving the White House, becoming president of Chase Federal Bank based in Miami, Florida. This institution was inevitably pulled into the failure of most federal savings and loan banks in the early 1990s. Gray left as Chase Federal was sold to an investor group. He returned to San Diego.

Gray has a long association with multiple public and civic organizations, mostly in California and San Diego in particular. He has remained active in Republican party work and providing speeches and public relations work for candidates.

Gray is married and has 2 children.

Record Type

Textual

Last Modified Date

2024-11-15

WHORM Alpha File

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Gray, Edwin J.: Files, 1981-1982

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