ILR School Extension Division Metropolitan District Office (New York, N.Y.), Lois Gray Papers

Lois Gray (October 17, 1923 - September 20, 2018) was the Jean McKelvey-Alice Grant Professor Emeritus and former Dean of Extension of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University.

Gray was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and spent her childhood in Edmond, Oklahoma, where she completed high school. She received her bachelor’s degree at Park College in Missouri, majoring in Economics.

In 1946, Gray founded the school's first off-campus extension office in Buffalo, and subsequently moving to direct the New York City office in 1956 before being appointed Associate Dean and Director of Extension in 1976. Gray completed graduate degrees (M.A. at University of Buffalo and Ph.D. in Economics from Columbia University) while working fulltime for Cornell ILR.

Many innovative programs were established under her leadership including Labor and Urban Affairs, Programs for Employment and Workplace Systems, the Institute for Women and Work, Summer Schools for Women Union Activists, Hispanic Labor Leadership and Labor Studies for College Credit. As one of the founders of the field of labor education, Gray continued to be both a scholar and labor educator throughout her career. Subjects of her research and publishing included labor market trends, women and minorities in the workforce, training and adult education, labor-management relations in the entertainment industry, and women in union leadership. Another focus of her work was union structure, governance, and administration. In addition, Gray played a role in burgeoning Latin American labor education programs, including those of Chile, Jamaica, Barbados, and Puerto Rico.

Gray received numerous awards over her career, including Lifetime Achievement from the Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA) and the United Association for Labor Education (UALE). In 2006, she received an award from the Working Theatre for "Bridging the Gap between Arts, Labor and Community." She was appointed by three governors to chair the New York State Apprenticeship and Training Council and served on the New York State Manpower Training Council and Displaced Homemakers Taskforce.

She was an Associate of the Worker Institute where she engaged in research on the arts and entertainment industry. She served in this role at the Worker Institute until she passed. Gray was married to Ed Gray, who had been the Regional Director and Member of the International Executive Board of the UAW.

The New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) is one of the many schools and colleges that make up Cornell University. Unlike most of Cornell's schools, however the ILR was created by the state legislature in 1945 and is part of the SUNY (State University of New York) system. One of the functions of the ILR School is extension (continuing adult education) and public service. Funding for these activities, comes from state support, modest charges to participants, and grants and contracts. The School's Division of Extension and Public Service is administered through a headquarters staff in Ithaca and offices in Albany, Buffalo, Long Island, New York City, Rochester, and Westchester. The Metropolitan District Office, which serves the five counties that make up New York City as well as Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, and Rockland counties, focuses on programs and services for trade unions and other employee organizations, workers, community groups, and government agencies.