How Richard Gray is building a Legacy

Summers spent barefoot, swimming in the creek and unloading and packing shrimp on the docks at Port Royal are fond memories for Richard L. Gray Sr.

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Long hours and hard work with good employees have helped Gray, 77, Grayco founder and chairman, through the years, and it is that which influences him to give to others.

"I give because I think we've been very fortunate in this community, and I think you share in that community," Gray said.

About four years ago, the family formed the Richard Gray Family Foundation, "so we could make larger and more gifts," Gray said.

LowCountry Habitat for Humanity is the benefactor of the foundation's most recent gift -- $50,000 -- to build the 29th Habitat house at Prince and Hamar streets in Beaufort to be known as the Grayco House.

"It goes beyond just the house; they also have made donations of building materials to us," said Brenda Dooley, executive director of LowCountry Habitat for Humanity.

"When they closed the old hardware store, they let us run a three-day sale, and we got proceeds from that sale," said Dooley. "They have been wonderful to work with. They were the event sponsor for our birdhouse auction for the last two years and made a cash donation. Periodically, as they have things, they will contact us and let us know they have windows and doors, which supports the Habitat for Humanity's Restore -- and some items are used in houses." Dooley noted since Habitat began operating in 1990, it has built 26 houses with two in progress.

Gray is widely known for his gifts to many area nonprofits. He and his wife, Joyce, have supported Beaufort Memorial Hospital through its Valentine Ball by holding dinner parties and as a corporate sponsor. Grayco has provided materials for the renovation of the Child Abuse Prevention Association's administrative offices. And the foundation also has supported Citizens Opposed to Domestic Abuse, the YMCA and the Fripp Island Community Center's Building Fund. In addition, Gray is working with Malcolm Goodridge, helping to raise money for a building to assist autistic children throughout the county on land owned by Beaufort Academy.

The family also donated 77 acres to the Town of Hardeeville, which needed an athletic facility, to build the Richard Gray Sports Complex.

While Gray's benefactors might not know him personally, his contemporaries respect and appreciate his generosity.

"He's a self-made man with social responsibility, and he likes giving back to his community," said Joe Mix, 76, a board member and former president of the Boys & Girls Club of Beaufort, which has received donations from the Gray family's foundation more than once.

Most recently, the Gray foundation supported the club's new teen center. "He's got an eye for good causes -- things that really work where the money won't be wasted," Mix said.

Gray was also on the Beaufort County Council. "He served public office, and they don't get paid a lot," Mix said. "He's a great guy who is very popular with the business crowd."

Requests for assistance are received daily. "Giving back to the community is important," Gray said. "People are the backbone of the economy."

Growing up in Port Royal, Gray was no stranger to needy as the third of eight children of Harold and Evie Gray.

He recalls the small, sleepy town of Port Royal, where the children greeted their father when he returned each evening aboard a boat from Parris Island where he worked as a painter.

"We all had to pitch in to make ends meet," Gray said. "It was a close family."

When he was old enough, summers were spent earning money by unloading boats and packing shrimp at the docks in Port Royal. He also worked at the grocery store, which would open sometimes at 3 a.m. to allow newly trained Marines to make their first purchases after riding the ferry into Port Royal.

"There are so many people who need help," said Gray. "I know what hard times are and what being poor was. There were so many people in Port Royal that were living just like us, I didn't know there was anything else. ... I have all good, fond memories about growing up there. We didn't know anything different. We had a TV; we weren't destitute or dirt poor, but we worked for a living."

During Gray's childhood, there was no Russell Bell Bridge connecting Parris Island to the mainland, and Marine recruits would often arrive by train from Yemassee on their way to Parris Island.

When Gray was in middle school, he remembers a special platform being built, where Pender Brothers is now on Ribaut Road, to allow wheelchair-bound President Franklin Roosevelt to get off of the train and get onto a boat to visit Parris Island. "They rolled him off the platform," Gray recalled.

He recalls walking from Port Royal to the movie theater in Beaufort to see cowboy movies featuring Tom Mix and Gene Autry. "We'd go swing into the creek, play baseball and football in a field," said the 1950 Beaufort High School graduate.

Just out of high school, Gray followed in his father's footsteps taking a civil service job on Parris Island. He worked at the gas station on post, where he learned the ropes of the business and began to network.

Around 1956, with a $5,000 loan from his father-in-law, a physician, Gray opened his first filling station business near what was The Shack Drive In on Boundary Street near the new Hilton Garden Inn."Our biggest sales were $3 to $5 to fill up anybody's tank," he said.

Gray remembers the old hand pumps where he pumped gas and changed oil and tires with his assistant, James Reed, of Seabrook. Gray later moved his new auto parts business further down Boundary Street, then he transitioned to hardware.

To keep up with changes, Gray saw the needs of the growing town and saw better opportunities in offering building supplies. The building supply business grew on Lady's Island, and the Bluffton office was added before the building boom started.

Gray met his wife, a Barnwell native, after she moved to Beaufort to teach at Beaufort Elementary School.

Once they began raising their family of four, the kids spaced two years apart -- Caroline, Suzanne, Richard Jr. and Herb -- Joyce stayed home to raise the family. They now have nine grandchildren.

Gray knows hard work, leaving home at 5 a.m. and returning around 7 p.m. or later. "My wife was very supportive when I was struggling trying to get a business going," he said. "She is the backbone of our family. She struggled with raising the kids while I worked long hours, and after raising the family, she has handled Gray Rentals."

Gray ran the store all day, then did bookkeeping and inventory purchasing at night.

Over the last 10 years, Gray's sons have each taken over parts of his business. Richard Jr. is in charge of the real estate, and Herb is in charge of Grayco, which encompasses two Grayco hardware stores and two Grayco Home Centers, one each on Lady's Island, a hardware store on Hilton Head Island and a home center in Bluffton. "I keep a little finger in it -- running the day-to-day operation," Gray said.

Gray and his family want to share the fruits of their hard work. "We've been fortunate," Gray said. "We've been lucky, and we had a lot of people working with us. It's a lot of hard work."