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Priscilla King Gray, the spouse of former MIT president Paul Gray ’54, SM ’55, ScD ’60, and cofounder of the MIT Public Service Center (since renamed the PKG Center), died February 8 at age 89.
In greater than 50 years on the Institute, starting when her husband joined the college in 1960, Gray made an indelible mark, particularly by the middle that she based in 1988 with the late Shirley McBay, then dean of pupil affairs. She served as cochair of its steering committee for 23 years and was “a real strategic thought accomplice” all through its evolution into a corporation whose imaginative and prescient of public service is now long-term, community-informed, and academically aligned, says affiliate dean Jill Bassett, its present director.
But she additionally performed a way more private function for generations within the MIT group. Through her group actions and the embroidery lessons she taught for years, Gray realized an excellent deal about college students’ opinions and desires, serving to her provide invaluable recommendation to her husband. And when he grew to become president, she began a practice of dinners for undergraduate seniors in what’s now Gray House. “I wished to by some means be sure each MIT pupil had been within the president’s home as soon as,” she advised the MIT Infinite History mission.
“Priscilla was the mom of all of us who had been college students at MIT,” says Hyun-A Park ’83, MCP ’85, a member of the MIT Corporation and former president of the Alumni Association.
Gray was named an honorary member of the MITAA in 1977 and acquired its Harold E. Lobdell ’17 Distinguished Service Award in 1985. In 1990, she acquired the Bronze Beaver, its highest honor.
“As I’m studying,” says MIT’s new president, Sally Kornbluth, “Priscilla’s title is synonymous with public service at MIT—a becoming legacy for somebody who believed deeply in our college students and their capability to do good on the earth.”
