But she also played a much more personal role for generations in the MIT community. Through her community activities and the embroidery classes she taught for years, Gray learned a great deal about students’ opinions and needs, helping her offer invaluable advice to her husband. And when he became president, she started a tradition of dinners for undergraduate seniors in what is now Gray House. “I wanted to somehow make sure every MIT student had been in the president’s house once,” she told the MIT Infinite History project.
“Priscilla was the mother of all of us who were students at MIT,” says Hyun-A Park ’83, MCP ’85, a member of the MIT Corporation and former president of the Alumni Association.
Gray was named an honorary member of the MITAA in 1977 and received its Harold E. Lobdell ’17 Distinguished Service Award in 1985. In 1990, she received the Bronze Beaver, its highest honor.
“As I’m learning,” says MIT’s new president, Sally Kornbluth, “Priscilla’s name is synonymous with public service at MIT—a fitting legacy for someone who believed deeply in our students and their capacity to do good in the world.”