Edwin J. Gray
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Edwin J. Gray is an American politician and businessman who served as the chair of the
Federal Home Loan Bank Board The Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB) was a U.S. board created by the Federal Home Loan Bank Act in 1932 that governed the Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLB or FHLBanks), also created by the act; the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporatio ...
in the 1980s.


Early life

Gray was born in 1933 or 1934. Per the resume he published in the 1980s, Gray was the
valedictorian Valedictorian is an academic title for the class rank, highest-performing student of a graduation, graduating class of an academic institution in the United States. The valedictorian is generally determined by an academic institution's grade poin ...
of his high school graduating class in 1953.


Early career

Gray was, for many years, a political aide to
Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...
. His work with Reagan began in 1966, when he was part of the press team for Reagan's first gubernatorial inauguration. He thereafter worked for Reagan during his governorship, before leaving to work as a
savings and loan A savings and loan association (S&L), or thrift institution, is a financial institution that specializes in accepting savings deposits and making mortgage and other loans. While the terms "S&L" and "thrift" are mainly used in the United States, ...
executive. During Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign, Gray served first as Reagan's press secretary for a four month period, and later as deputy chief of staff for the Reagan-Bush Committee. During the
presidential transition of Ronald Reagan The presidential transition of Ronald Reagan began when he won the 1980 United States presidential election, becoming the president-elect, and ended when Reagan was inaugurated on January 20, 1981. The transition was led by Edwin Meese and w ...
, Gray participated in policy planning. On January 16, 1981,
President-elect An ''officer-elect'' is a person who has been elected to a position but has not yet been installed. Notably, a president who has been elected but not yet installed would be referred to as a ''president-elect'' (e.g. president-elect of the Un ...
Reagan named Gray to serve in his administration as "deputy assistant to the president for policy development". By the end of his tenure in the White House, he was serving as director of the White House Office of Policy Information. While working in the Reagan White House, he helped to convinced the Reagan administration to support the Depository Institutions Act of 1982. He left the Reagan White House in August 1982 to accept a job a Great American Federal Savings Bank.


Federal Home Loan Bank Board

In February 1983, Reagan nominated Gray to serve as a member of the
Federal Home Loan Bank Board The Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB) was a U.S. board created by the Federal Home Loan Bank Act in 1932 that governed the Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLB or FHLBanks), also created by the act; the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporatio ...
, both for a partial term expiring June 30, 1983 and a full term after that, expiring June 30, 1987. He was confirmed by the
United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...
by
unanimous consent In parliamentary procedure, unanimous consent, also known as general consent, or in the case of the parliaments under the Westminster system, leave of the house (or leave of the senate), is a situation in which no member present objects to a propo ...
on March 23, 1983. In 1984, Gray became chair of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board. He was the twentieth individual to hold this position. He had been originally perceived as a friend to the savings and loans industry, which had pushed for him to be placed in that position. Gray sounded the alarms in 1984 that there was trouble in the savings and loan industry, forewarning the coming
savings and loan crisis The savings and loan crisis of the 1980s and 1990s (commonly dubbed the S&L crisis) was the failure of approximately a third of the savings and loan associations (S&Ls or thrifts) in the United States between 1986 and 1995. These thrifts were b ...
.
United States Secretary of the Treasury The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...
Donald Regan Donald Thomas Regan (December 21, 1918 – June 10, 2003) was an American government official and business executive who served as the 66th United States secretary of the treasury from 1981 to 1985 and as the 11th White House chief of staff fr ...
did not heed Gray's warnings. Beginning in 1985, he feared that the savings industry's risky investment practices were exposing the government's insurance funds to huge losses. Gray instituted a rule whereby savings associations could hold no more than ten percent of their assets in "direct investments", and were thus prohibited from taking ownership positions in certain financial entities and instruments. As chairman, the strict regulations he put in place made him controversial. In 1985, Donald Regan, by then White House Chief of Staff made an effort to push Gray out of the job. Gray butted heads with
Charles Keating Charles Humphrey Keating Jr. (December 4, 1923 – March 31, 2014) was an American sportsman, lawyer, real estate developer, banker, financier, conservative activist, and convicted felon best known for his role in the savings and loan sc ...
, the chairman of
Lincoln Savings and Loan Association The Lincoln Savings and Loan Association of Irvine, California, was the financial institution at the heart of the Keating Five scandal during the 1980s savings and loan crisis. History Lincoln Savings and Loan Association was founded in Los Ange ...
, who tried to get Gray to quit the board by offering him a position at the bank. Intervention on behalf of Keating by five members of the United States Senate at an April 1987 meeting with Gray would be at the center of the
Keating Five File:AlanCranston.jpg, Alan Cranston (D-CA) File:Dennis DeConcini.jpg, File:John Glenn Low Res.jpg, John Glenn (D-OH) File:McCain2 (1).jpg, John McCain (R-AZ) File:Riegle2.jpg, Donald Riegle (D-MI) The Keating Five were five United States Se ...
controversy. Gray's tenure ended in mid-1987.


Later career

Gray worked at Chase Federal Bank. He departed in the fall of 1993. In 1988, when
Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Speaker most commonly refers to: * Speaker, a person who produces speech * Loudspeaker, a device that produces sound ** Computer speakers Speaker, Speakers, or The Speaker may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * "Speaker" (song), by Davi ...
Jim Wright James Claude Wright Jr. (December 22, 1922 – May 6, 2015) was an American politician who served as the 48th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1987 to 1989. He represented Texas' 12th congressional district as a ...
was under investigation by the
House Ethics Committee The U.S. House Committee on Ethics, often known simply as the Ethics Committee, is one of the committees of the United States House of Representatives. Before the 112th Congress, it was known as the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct. ...
, Gray provided the ''
Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
'' with information about Wright's attempts to interfere with investigations that the Federal Home Loan Bank Board had been undertaking during Gray's tenure as its chairman. These news stories helped to solidify end of Wright's political career.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Edwin J. 1930s births 20th-century California politicians Reagan administration personnel Living people