Eddie Vaughn Gray

Eddie was born July 24, 1935 to the late Elmer J. Gray and Edna M. Gray. Eddie was a life-long resident of Baytown and attended Robert E. Lee High School, and then Texas A & M University, where he earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Geology. Eddie was married to the late Faye Brown Gray in 1954 and shared 64 years of marriage with Faye. After Faye’s death in November of 2019, Eddie later married Dolores Smith Gray on December 22, 2022.

Eddie was often known to say, “Can I tell you a story?” These are just a few tidbits, because to tell Eddie’s full story would involve writing a book—a book which he started. While at Robert E. Lee, Eddie was a talented athlete and lettered in football, basketball and track. He loved to run and won a Texas State Championship in the 400-meter dash and anchored the mile relay team for the Ganders who set a state record at the 1953 Texas State Track and Field Championship. Eddie was proud to follow in the footsteps of his dad Elmer “Bulldog” Gray, who ran track for Abilene Christian College and the ACC track star even ran in the 1932 Olympic trials after hitchhiking to California. Eddie’s track skill took him to college at TAMU where he excelled as captain of the Freshman track team. Eddie was a dedicated Fightin’ Texas Aggie and served as an officer in the Corps of Cadets.

His love of business and his entrepreneurial spirit brought him back to Baytown to partner with his father Elmer and to be schooled by his “cousin”, the late Truman Cox, who he says was a tremendous negotiator. Eddie was proud to have 4 generations of family in his business, with daughter Janet Wahrlich working with him for 40 years as his in-house attorney and his grandson, Logan Sullivan joining the development and management team of the company for the last 10 years. Eddie always encouraged entrepreneurship and enjoyed having his grandson Shaun Stickler and his growing businesses office at Gray Enterprises. In early years of business Eddie drilled gas wells in Port Acres, Texas and Blackfalls, Alberta, Canada, but left geology to hone his skill in real estate by developing Graywood Subdivision. Later Eddie led an investor group in developing a 4000-lot residential community of Fairmont Park, in LaPorte, Texas. Eddie did not ever want to retire, and he never did. Late in his career, he partnered with Greg Angel, Gary Angel, Bill Sjolander, and the late Guy Matthews to take on the most impressive real estate project of his life, as the group acquired 7000 acres in Liberty County, which is currently under development as River Ranch, with 1100+ lots on the ground and 1000’s more to come from other developers who have joined the effort.

Real estate was always Eddie’s strong suit, but another love of his was farming and ranching. His agricultural projects spanned many decades including farming rice, soybeans, a commercial operation of laying hens, timber production in East Texas, and cattle operations on and off through the years, including herds of registered Charolais, registered Angus, Brangus, Braford, and Brahmin. One of his favorite real-life stories was how Eddie and his father, and a ranch hand named “Hoot”, grazed cattle on the 52,000-acre West Ranch that later became the site for the Johnson Space Center on NASA Road 1 in Clear Lake. He told friends that he was born 100 years too late and that he thought in an earlier life that he was a Texas Ranger. He even suited out as a Ranger and was a guest speaker at Sterling High School history classes.

Eddie applied his skill in planning, negotiating to the benefit of the community and many charities. Eddie negotiated the real estate purchase to help create the Eddie V. Gray Wetlands Center. The City of Baytown has run this highly successful environmental education and recreation center since 1998, and has taught almost 40,000 students from Goose Creek CISD 1st, 5th and 7th grades. Eddie was a lifelong member of the Baytown Rotary with over 60 years of active participation. Eddie continued the tradition of his mother Edna who served for over 30 years on San Jacinto Methodist Hospital and Houston Methodist Baytown Hospital Board of Trustees, and was a strong supporter of Houston Methodist Baytown Hospital and its program for nursing excellence and skills training. Along with the dedication of his mother and sister, the late Bennie Kadjar, who both chaired the Lee College Foundation Board, Eddie was a lifelong advocate of Lee College and joined the late John Turner in a fund-raising effort for student center around 2004. Eddie and his wife, Dolores are active members of Memorial Baptist Church, which has been the church home of each of them for decades, as well as for many members of their families. One of Eddie’s favorite things was to have Dolores read aloud from the Bible- they had worked their way through much of the Bible this way and had some interesting discussion about the passages.

Eddie is survived by his wife, Dolores Smith Gray of Baytown; his daughters: Janet Gray Wahrlich and husband Fred Wahrlich of Houston; daughter Sheron Gray Stickler and husband Sonny Stickler of Baytown; daughter Charlotte Gray Stephenson and husband Baret Stephenson of Dayton; and daughter Melinda Gray Reichert and husband Steve Reichert of San Antonio; and his wife’s son David Smith and wife Laura Smith of Baytown; and his wife’s daughter Julie Taylor and husband Andy Taylor.

Eddie’s grandchildren include Shaun Stickler and wife Abbie Stickler of Seabrook; Shalyn Stickler of Houston; John David Wahrlich and wife Azure Wahrlich of Houston; Tyler Sullivan and wife Bailey Sullivan of Needville; Logan Sullivan and wife Alex Sullivan of Dayton; Scarlet Peveto and husband Collin Peveto of The Woodlands; Ashtyn Hewitt and husband Connor Hewitt of Gilmer; Rachel Stelly and husband Hunter Stelly of Dayton; Grayson Reichert and Travis Reichert of San Antonio.

Eddie’s great-grandchildren include Silas Gray Stickler, Teddie Faye Stickler, Sloan Ray Sullivan, Belle Evelyn Sullivan, Nova Ruth Sullivan, Valley Gray Sullivan, the late Nelli Joyce Sullivan, Lara James Hewitt, and Sullivan Lee Stelly.

The family invites you to the visitation on Sunday, June 28, 2026 at Memorial Baptist Church Baytown, 600 W. Sterling, Baytown, Texas in the sanctuary at 3 pm, followed by the memorial service in the sanctuary at 4:30 pm, with a meal for friends and family in the gym at Memorial Baptist at 6 pm.

As an expression of sympathy, donations in memory of Eddie can be made to the Friends of the Eddie V. Gray Wetlands Center by sending a check to Friends of the Eddie V. Gray Wetlands Center, 707 Memorial Dr., Baytown, TX 77522 and for credit card payments, please leave a message for Kim Crain at (281) 422-3677 Ext. 16 or to Houston Methodist Foundation Baytown Campus for Nursing Scholarship, P.O. Box 4384, Houston, TX 77210-4384, www.houstonmethodist.org/giving