Bill Gray was the class of ’64. He was first bass and because we were all in this age of sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll, many of us became lawyers! A group of us here. Bill was one of these, and went on to a very distinguished career. I remember he went to Penn Law School, became Attorney General of the State of Vermont, and unfortunately then died quite young. My recollection of him—this was also the group that went to India. We sort of broke the boundaries of the New England girl schools and the Caribbean trips, and we decided to do something entirely different. Bill was one of the most enthusiastic on the trip. I remember one time we were singing in the middle of this little village in Gujarat. We had been asked by the village to do the usual concert. We did all kinds of different songs. We had what we     called a Representative Western Repertoire—God knows what it was.  In any event, in the middle of our concert someone had neglected to tell the local herder that we were singing because an entire herd of water buffalo came right through the middle of the square and the middle of the place where we were singing.  I don’t know if any of you have had any experience with water buffalo, but they leave things behind them when they go. So we returned to the stage, such as it was, knee-deep in this. After that, William Barton Gray was henceforth known as WB—Water Buffalo—WB Gray. He also distinguished himself by being the first bass soloist in The House of Blue Lights. It was composed at the keyboard by Jeff Gutcheon, whom I hope some of you got to see last night. I guess I can’t hear, Well, You Lace Up Your Boots without thinking of Bill Gray. That’s what I have to say.

-From Bob Croog at the 60th Anniversary Memorial Service

William B. Gray, a former United States Attorney in Vermont who had been an assistant United States Attorney in Manhattan, died on Tuesday at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Mr. Gray, who lived in Jericho, Vt., was 52.

The cause was complications from leukemia, said his wife, Sarah.

Mr. Gray was named United States Attorney in Vermont in 1977, a position he held for four years. He had been an associate Deputy Attorney General at the United States Justice Department from 1975 to 1977.

In 1968, Mr. Gray was an assistant United States Attorney in Manhattan, where he began his legal career in 1967 as an associate with the firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison.

Since 1981 he had been a partner in the Burlington, Vt., firm of Sheehay, Brue, Gray and Furlong. He was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for the United States Senate from Vermont in 1988.

Mr. Gray was a 1964 graduate of Harvard College and received a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Gray is survived by a son, Joshua, of Jericho; a daughter, Sasha Gray Rakovshik of Moscow; his father, Edwin, of Putney, Vt.; two brothers, Robert, of South Newbury, Vt., and John, of Whitefish, Mont., and two sisters, Connie Gray of Watertown, Mass., and Deborah O’Brien of Putney.

Published in nytimes.com – See more at: https://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/26/obituaries/william-b-gray-52-former-us-attorney.html