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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
CATHOLICS IN GEORGIA
THOMAS S. GRAY
If you were to ask the young men of Augusta
who the most popular business man of their city
is, their answer in the majority of cases would be:
“Mr. Tom Gray.” If you were to put the same
question to their elders, they would give you the
last two thirds of their juniors* answer. And if
you were to ask a member of the Catholic Lay
men’s Association for the name of the hardest
worker in the Augusta Association, the answer
would be the same as in the other cases.
Mr. Gray was born in Atlanta April 6, 1872. His
father died while he was very young. After grad
uating from the Brothers’ School at St. Patrick’s,
he entered merchantile life as a bookkeeper for an
Augusta house.
In 1896, Mr. Gray was united in marriage to Miss
Annie Wiggins of Augusta. Seven children bless
ed the union, five of whom are living—Margaret,
(Mrs. Eugene Gilbert), Herbert, a student at the
law school of the University of Georgia, Thomas
S. Jr., a student at Richmond Academy, and Anna
and Virginia Gray.
Mr. Gray became teller at the Union Savings
Bank in 1898, and has advanced through various
positions to that of vice-president and cashier,
which he holds today. In banking circles he is
known as the “young man’s friend.” Through the
bigness of his heart, he has started many an Au
gusta young man on the road to prosperity in
business. “Character, not capital,” is his standard
of judging the young man, and his wide business
experience has yet to reveal to him a case where
this policy has been faulty.
When a dispute arises in business questions in
Augusta, Mr. Gray is looked upon as the logical
arbitrator, and his advice is constantly sought in
matters of finance in Richmond County and its
vicinity.
About ten years ago, the Wholesale and Retail
Merchants Association of Augusta started a
movement to put a boat line on the Savannah
CLERICAL LIFE—SOME OF ITS SERIOUS
AND HUMOROUS SIDES
(Continued from page 7.)
and on going there I found Mr. W., the occupant
of the pew who had caused me the distraction
the day before. He had no sooner introduced
himself to me than he said: “Father, yesterday
was the first time that I was ever inside a Cath
olic Church during service, and I did not under
stand a single thing that was done. Why do you
stand with your back to the people? And what
are you reading out of that book? Why do you
wear those queer vestments during the service?
Now you must not be offended at my asking all
those questions, but Mr. H. told me that I could
ask you about anything that I did not under
stand, and that you would be glad to answer.”
I told him, of course, that I would be very glad
to tell him anything about the Church that he
desired to know, and that I would commence
with the difficulties he had mentioned.
“The service which you attended yesterday is
what we call Mass,” I said, “and it dates back in
all its essential features to the time of the
Apostles. The Priest stands facing the Altar be
cause he is not talking to the people, but for
the people to God; and hence he turns his face
to the Altai;, where God is. He wears these vest-
aments which seem so queer to you out of respect
to God. You would not like to go to your parlor
River between Augusta and Savannah. Mr. Gray
was named chairman of the committee which
went out and raised in a few days the $90,000 nec
essary to establish the boat line. Two modern
boats were secured, and the line flourished until
the war started, when they were transferred.
Augusta until recently was visited with exas
perating regularity by floods. It was not an un
common sight to see boats operating in the down
town section of the city. Mr. Gray was appointed
a member of a committee organized to mitigate
the evil. The committee not only mitigated, but
eliminated it. Today a million dollar levee stands
between the river and the city as the result of
the work of the committee on which Mr. Gray
worked, and floods in Augusta are a matter only
of history.
During the war Mr. Gray was actively engaged
in the various drives conducted in the Tenth Con
gressional District. He was treasurer of the Au
gusta Red Cross Drive, Liberty Loan Drives, and
various other campaigns which did so much to
bring the war to its successful termination.
Mr. Gray’s work for the Laymen’s Association is
too well known for repetition. He is never too
busy to lend his assistance to the work; never too
occupied to give it the benefit of his advice. He
is president of the Augusta branch of the Catholic
Laymen’s Association of Georgia, and state treas
urer. He is a charter member of Patrick Walsh
Council, Knights of Columbus, of Augusta, and a
founder of the Church of St. Mary of The Hill. He
is also a member of the Augusta Country Club,
the Carmichael Club, the McElmurray Club, and
various other social and civic organizations.
With men like Mr. Gray, loyal, practical, enter
prising and courageous, behind the Laymen’s As
sociation, it can face the future with assurance
that great as has been its success in the past, its
greatest work will be done in the days which are
yet to come.
where some honored guest awaits you if you were
in your work day clothes, but out of respect for
him you would change them for others; so we
Priests as we go to the Altar of God change our
ordinary dress. Now as to what I was reading
out of that book yesterday I will read it for you.”
I took a Missal out of my book case and read
the Introit, and some of the other proper parts of
the Mass. We were celebrating the Feast of SS.
Peter and Paul, whose more solemn celebration
had been transferred to the Sunday. “Can you
imagine,” I said to him, “anything more appro
priate to the House of God, and to read to the
people of God, who are met there to worship Him,
than these words which are taken from the Acts
of the Apostles: ‘Now I know in very deed that
the Lord hath sent His Angel and hath delivered
me out of the hand of Herod; and from all the
expectation of the Jews’?”
“We were commemorating yesterday the feasts
of the holy Apostles, Saints Peter and Paul, and
so we recalled to the memory of the faithful the
words of Peter as he left the prison in Jerusalem.
Then I read from the Psalms: ‘Lord, Thou has
proved me and know me; Thou hast known my
sitting down and my rising up.’ We believe that
the Saints who reign with God in Heaven are in
terested in us and pray to Him for us; for if the
Angels who see God’s face in Heaven feel joy, as
Christ tells us, when one sinner does penance,
how much more joy should the Saints feel who