Obituary of Rockwell Gray

Rockwell Gray was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and grew up as a child in Barrington, Rhode Island. An esteemed professor of philosophy, social thought, and literature, Rockwell taught at Washington University and Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri, and several other major universities and secondary schools in the United States and abroad. He lived and traveled extensively in Spain and Chile and wrote the seminal intellectual biography of Ortega Y Gasset “The Imperative of Modernity,” “A Century of Enterprise: St. Louis, 1894–1994,” “Opening to the World: John Burroughs School at Seventy-five (1923–1998),” and he translated a collection of Chilean folk tales by Yolando Pino-Saavedra. He also published articles and essays in journals all over the world. His passion for personal history, family, nature, and literature was key to his character. Rockwell will be remembered for this curiosity, his deep devotion to his wife, Madelyn, and the children he loved so much: Lowell Boyers, Zachary Boyers, Elizabeth Emerson Gray, and their spouses Rachel Boyers and Bill Wilmot. So proud of his family, he marveled at the growth and successes of his grandchildren, Cecilia June Boyers, Ivan Paul Boyers, Calder Emerson Wilmot, and August Jacob Wilmot. Rockwell is predeceased by his brother, Spalding Gray, and survived by his brother Channing Gray. He was a wordsmith, a scholar of language and etymology, and was often found dusting off words that hadn’t been used for some time, to speak his mind clearly in conversation. Rockwell possessed a fabulous sense of humor and dry wit, could effortlessly break into song, remembering obscure lyrics and melodies from his world travels and childhood, old sea shanties, and more, and relished family play around the dinner table. A close reader of Walt Whitman and Robert Frost, he loved being read to by his wife, Madelyn, during the last months of his life, sharing many volumes of poetry, fiction, and deep reflections on the state of the nation and heartfelt reminiscences of family and the past. His family is deeply grateful for the care he received at Delmar Gardens in Creve Couer, Missouri. In lieu of gifts and flowers, please send donations to the Saint Louis Art Museum.