Chester Harold Gray, Jr. was born in Missouri in 1907 and moved to Washington, D.C. with his family following high school. He graduated from George Washington University in 1931 and worked for the American Automobile Association before joining the National Highway Users Conference (American Highway Users Alliance) in 1934. After working in Chicago, Illinois for nearly a decade, he returned to D.C. to head up the Alliance’s state services department, where he advocated for improved roads and traffic safety. Gray retired in 1971 but continued to work as a transportation consultant and lobbyist, serving as executive secretary of the National Capital Area Transportation Federation until 1989. He was married to Lida Ruth Yow Gray and they had three children, Chester, Thomas, and Gordon Gray. He lived in the Palisades neighborhood of D.C. for more than 50 years. An active community member, Gray served as the president of the Federation of Citizens Association, Chairman of the Interfederation Council of Washington Metropolitan Area, the Association of Oldest Inhabitants, and the Palisades Citizens Association. In 1956 he wrote a history of the Palisades neighborhood for the Palisades Citizens Association entitled “The Palisades History.” This work was updated in 1966 by Ruth Hall and served as the basis for Alice Stewart’s 2005 book “The Palisades of Washington DC.” Grey died in 2008 and is buried in Columbia Gardens Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.