PAUL BRYAN GRAY

Paul Bryan Gray, a distinguished attorney and award-winning historian and author, passed away at his cherished home on March 12, 2024. He died valiantly with the tenaciousness that characterized his life. 

Paul was born on April 10, 1938, in Los Angeles, California. He enlisted in the United States Army and was stationed in Germany. He received his Bachelor of Arts Degree from California State University, Long Beach, followed by his Juris Doctorate from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, San Francisco. After graduating from law school, Paul worked in a prestigious law firm in Mexico City. For most of his 53-year profession, Paul was a sole trial lawyer representing his clients with great expertise, meticulous attention to detail, and notable articulateness and force in the courtroom. Paul practiced law with his wife, Felipa, as his office administrator for 43 years. He was awarded the highest level of excellence by Martindale-Hubbell, an AV rating. Paul served as Judge Pro Team and Arbitrator, and was a Lecturer at Cal Poly, Pomona, and a Visiting Assistant Professor at UCL. The pride of his legal career was his collaboration in prevailing in the case, League of United Latin American Citizens v. Santa Ana, et al., 410 F. Supp. 873 (C.D. Cal. 1976).

Paul had a remarkable life, including bullfighting in Mexico. Fluent n Spanish, he traveled throughout Mexico as a teenager and continued until recently. He embraced Mexico and its culture wholeheartedly. He read extensively its prose and poetry, and Spanish, Portuguese, French and German. He was an avid reader and valued his extensive collection of books.

 Paul immersed himself in 19th century greater Los Angeles and California history, delving deeply into research, mainly at the Huntington Library and Huntington Library, in which he utilized his skills from his legal profession in processing reams of material, including old documents and newspapers. His mastery off Spanish enabled him to unearth valuable information and insights. In addition to numerous articles and essays, Paul was the author of Forster vs. Pico: The Struggle for the Rancho Santa Margarita, for which he won the Donald H. Pflueger Award for distinguished research and writing from the Historical Society of Southern California. He followed this with A Clamor for Equality: Emergence and Exile of Californio Activist Francisco P. Ramirez, a biography of the publisher of the first Spanish-languages newspaper in Los Angeles and social and political activist, and for which Paul was prominently featured in the Los Angeles Times. For the second time, Paul won the Donald H. Pflueger Award. At the end of 2023, The Latino Big Bang in California: The Diary of Justio Veytia, a Mexican Forty-Niner was published with Paul as a co-editor and co-translator.

 Paul, Don Pablo, Licenciado, was relentless and rigorous in his pursuit of information, and was an ardent reader who wrote with authority and vigor. He made valuable contributions to the field of reginal history and zealously advocated for his clients. To those who knew and respected his work as a lawyer, historian, scholar, and friend, Paul will be greatly missed and fondly remembered.

 Above all, Paul was devoted to his wife, Feli; children, Christopher (Daine), Mark (Nicole), Elsa (Jason), and Robert (Stephanie); grandchildren, Haley, Kaya, Erik (Jessica), Paul, Rosealee, and Henry; and brothers Tom and Steve. To his family who admired his passion, sense of humor, countless jokes, incessant curiosity, advice, generosity, creativity, storytelling, history lessons, encyclopedic knowledge, and unconditional love, he will live eternally in our hearts.