Bob

Robert James "Bobby" Gray III was born on February 27, 1945 at Saint Mary's Hospital in East Saint Louis Illinois, the second child and first son of Ceil and Bob Gray. Actually, Bobby's grandfather & great-grandfather were named Robert Joseph. Bob and Bobby were named Robert James.
Bobby attended school at Parker Elementary school in Chicago for 1/2 year in 1950. He then when to 1st and 2nd grade at Saint Bernard's school in Chicago. When the family moved to Weimar, Texas, Bobby finished his 3rd-8th grades at Saint Michael's School.
He took the name John when he was confirmed at Saint Cecilia's parish in San Antonio, Texas, his full name being Robert James John Gray III.
Bobby attended Saint John's Seminary in San Antonio, Texas, graduating in 1962, tenth in his class. Of course the class was only 26 students, so that makes him about average, right in the middle.
Bob attended ASU from 1962-66, but soon left and went to work for a few years. He attended Yavapai College, and obtained an AA degree in Art 1974. He graduated from NAU in December 1976 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Theatre Directing. He obtained an Arizona Community College teaching certificate and taught at Eastern Arizona College in a vocational program for the Department of Corrections, and taught commercial arts at Fort Grant Training Center, a minimum-security corrections establishment in Bonita, Arizona, near Safford and Thatcher.
Bob also worked at Yavapai College, teaching Acting, Stagecrafts, and Puppetry and produced a main-stage production of The Diary of Anne Frank at Prescott Fine Arts Association theatre (old Sacred Heart Church in downtown Prescott, Arizona). The play was directed by his student, Les Lambert.
Bob works as a substitute teacher in the Prescott, Chino Valley, and Prescott Valley Unified School Districts in north central Arizona. He also taught in the Phoenix area and worked for The Phoenix Symphony at Symphony Hall.
Bob occasionally works for the Motion Picture Industry in Arizona. He was a crew member for the movies The Zoo Gang which starred Ben Vereen, and Creepshow II which featured Ida Lupino, Paige Hanna, and George Kennedy. He was an extra in Nobody's Fool, which starred Eric Roberts and Rosanna Arquette, and in the original Nutty Professor with Jerry Lewis and Stella Stevens, which was made at ASU.

Uncle Bob,
Happy Birthday! Hope you had a great time at your party. We are very sorry that we couldn't attend. I've heard from many it was a great time. I almost need an act from congress to get time off from work. So how are you? Life treating you well? We are just freezing our asses off. It sure doesn't feel like March. Can't wait to see you and the family in Wyoming this summer. That should be a great time. Anyway, just wanted to drop you a line to say hello. Sorry again for being M.I.A at your 60th.
Hope you're well, See you Soon,
Scott and Jamie

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A Baby's Hug

We were the only family with children in the restaurant. I sat Erik in a high chair and noticed everyone was quietly sitting and talking. Suddenly, Erik squealed with glee and said,
"Hi."
He pounded his fat baby hands on the high-chair tray. His eyes were crinkled in laughter and his mouth was bared in a toothless grin, as he wriggled and giggled with merriment. I looked around and saw the source of his merriment. It was a man whose pants were baggy with zipper at half-mast and his toes poked out of would-be shoes. His shirt was dirty and his hair was uncombed and unwashed. His whiskers were too short to be called a beard and his nose was so varicose it looked like a road map. We were too far from him to smell, but I was sure he smelled. His hands waved and flapped on loose wrists.
"Hi there, baby; Hi there, big boy. I see ya, buster," the man said to Erik.
My husband and I exchanged looks, "What do we do?"
Erik continued to laugh and answer,
"Hi."
Everyone in the restaurant noticed and looked at us and then at the man. The old geezer was creating a nuisance with my beautiful baby. Our meal came and the man began shouting from across the room,
"Do ya patty cake? Do you know peek-a-boo? Hey, look, he knows peek-a-boo."
Nobody thought the old man was cute. He was obviously drunk. My husband and I were embarrassed. We ate in silence; all except for Erik, who was running through his repertoire for the admiring skidrow bum, who, in turn, reciprocated with his cute comments.
We finally got through the meal and headed for the door. My husband went to pay the check and told me to meet him in the parking lot. The old man sat poised between me and the door.
"Lord, just let me out of here before he speaks to me or Erik," I prayed.
As I drew closer to the man, I turned my back trying to sidestep him and avoid any air he might be breathing. As I did, Erik leaned over my arm, reaching with both arms in a baby's "pick-me-up" position. Before I could stop him, Erik had propelled himself from my arms to the man's. Suddenly a very old smelly man and a very young baby consummated their love and kinship. Erik, in an act of total trust, love, and submission, laid his tiny head upon the man's ragged shoulder. The man's eyes closed, and I saw tears hover beneath his lashes. His aged hands full of grime, pain, and hard labor, cradled my baby's bottom and stroked his back. No two beings have ever loved so deeply for so short a time. I stood awestruck. The old man rocked and cradled Erik in his arms and his eyes opened and set squarely on mine.
He said in a firm commanding voice, "You take care of this baby."
Somehow I managed, "I will," from a throat that contained a stone.
He pried Erik from his chest, lovingly and longingly, as though he were in pain.
I received my baby, and the man said, "God bless you, ma'am, you've given me my Christmas gift."
I said nothing more than a muttered
"...thanks."
With Erik in my arms, I ran for the car. My husband was wondering why I was crying and holding Erik so tightly, and why I was saying,
"My God, my God, forgive me." I had just witnessed Christ's love shown through the innocence of a tiny child who saw no sin, who made no judgment; a child who saw a soul, and a mother who saw a suit of clothes. I was a Christian who was blind, holding a child who was not.
I felt it was God asking, "Are you willing to share your son for a moment?" ...when He shared His for all eternity.
The ragged old man, unwittingly, had reminded me, "To enter the Kingdom of God, we must become as little children."
If this has blessed you, please bless others by sending it on.

...................Where were you in the Summer of 1962?
H-bomb Info on Project Sedan:
Some of the scientists of Project Chariot, conducted in Alaska, voiced opposition to Project Chariot. Two individuals were subsequently relieved of their positions, while others were blacklisted from working in their fields elsewhere. But together with the residents of Point Hope and a handful of dedicated conservationists, they raised to an unacceptable level the political cost of proceeding with the detonation of nuclear bombs at the Chariot site. It was then decided to conduct the cratering test in the Nevada desert in July of 1962 (O'Neill, 1989a).
Since the AEC couldn't explode their bombs at Ogotoruk Valley, it was decided to bring fresh radioactive fallout to the valley. Piper (1963) estimated that 26 milliCuries (mCi) of isotopes and mixed fission products were transported to the Chariot site. T his included a maximum of: 10 mCi of mixed fission products from a site in Nevada (described below), 6 mCi of Cesium 137, 5 mCi of Iodine 131, and 5 mCi of Strontium 185. This was to be an "experiment related to the dispersal, in an hydrologic environment , of radioactive products from a buried nuclear explosive" (USGS, 1962). The experiment would answer a question the AEC had posed to the United States Geological Survey (USGS): Would the bombs contaminate local drinking water? USGS scientist, A.M. Piper, answered the AEC in a report in November, 1961, concluding that "under some situations, effects...could be substantial and a serious handicap to Man's activities." The AEC wanted proof, and they assigned Piper to conduct experiments at the Chariot site (M agdanz, 1992).
The design of the experiment was this: Scientists from USGS would apply known amounts of radioactive fallout to measured plots of ground at Ogotoruk Valley. They would water the plots, to simulate rainfall if it wasn't raining at the time, and catch the w ater as it trickled off. In the lab, they would measure how much radioactivity was in the water. A USGS Professional Paper containing a complete description of the experiment was published in 1966 (Piper, 1966).

To acquire radioactive fallout, a USGS chemist from Denver, V.J. "Vic" Janzer, travelled to Nevada to where the cratering test, called "Project Sedan," was being conducted. He placed a ring of trays in a one mile radius around ground zero, and collected t hem 24 hours after detonation. He brought 17.5 pounds of this radioactive fallout - sediment, sand, and dust - to Ogotoruk Valley on August 20, 1962 (Oral comm. James Magdanz, 1992). In addition to this 17.5 pounds of material were small segregated quanti ties of Iodine 131, Strontium 85, and Cesium 137 mixed with sand (Oral comm. Dan O'Neill, 1993).
Killing Our Own A History of Nuclear Fallout in the USA.

Amy, Hope you had a Merry Christmas with your family. Your mom sent me a nice letter with her card about some of the things you are doing over the Holidays. Are both of your sons in high school or college now? Tina went to see her mother in law in Springfield IL. and to bring her to AZ for a vacation. I had two parties to go to, one at Brian's and one at Sara's. Vince and Gloria went to have Christmas in Connecticut with Scott and his wife. Tyler, Heather and her husband, and Tim's mother in law came to see Tim, but the kids left before I got to see them. It was a really crazy week, all plans were changed constantly and it was like a scavenger hunt that ended up in a wild goose chase, trying to keep up with it all. I guess you know what I mean. You want to see everybody, but even at Sara's her son Noah had to leave before her daughter Fawn got there because his (first) girlfriend had to go to work at a nursing home on Christmas back in Phoenix. Then we were short ushers and I ended up going to three masses on Christmas eve and two on Christmas day. At least that kept me calm and centered. Merry Christmas from the hectic Grays, Bob and all. Open letter from your web page editor:

I am considered a borderline diabetic, so the doctor wanted me to lose weight. I went on the Atkins diet last week. Brian and Vicki are on it, I need to lower my cholesterol from a high of 800. No sugar, no flour (Bread, pasta, deserts), high protein, so I am eating lorts of cabbage and tomatoes, one of my favorirtes, also peanuts and Tuna, and any meats or ppoultry, so it is not too bad, Brian said he lost 17 lbs in a month and lowered his cholesterol. The growth I had removed was a basal cell carcinoma, lots of people have them, they aren't catching and hardly ever spread. Also my colonoscopy was good, had one small polyp removed. They say my heart is good, so I could go on the diet and am getting more exercise to tone up. I have an elevated liver function. In case you wanted all the details,

Pax vobiscum,

Bob

I think that the amount of meat on the Atkins diet isn't good but I'd eat all the fruits and vegetables they offer. According to my doctor, almonds and walnuts are good for reducing cholesterol in place of meat of course. The only not so good thing on that diet is high fat and the idea that you can eat as much Meat as you want. The BIG issue is reducing pasta, bread and processed foods. -Cecilia

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