If there was a body of water worth casting a line into, Raymond J. Gray could be found anchored next to it, hook, line and sinker.
Fishing the rivers of the world was partly a perk of his job as longtime outdoor writer for the now-defunct Chicago’s American and Chicago Today newspapers, and as popular host of WGN radio’s “Great Outdoors Show,” where he was known as the “world’s greatest fisherman.”
But it was mostly passion that had Mr. Gray wetting his line between crocodiles and hippos in Botswana, in the wilds of Canada and deep in the heart of the Amazon jungles of South America. And at every locale, family members recalled, Mr. Gray found camaraderie with his fellow fisherman, winning them over with the same gregarious, down-home charm that endeared him to the Midwest outdoors fraternity.
“He never passed a river that he didn’t see someone dropping a line into and talk to the fisherman,” daughter Kathleen recalled. “He was a character.”
Mr. Gray, 92, died Wednesday, Dec. 28, of heart failure in his summer home in Twin Lakes, Wis.
Born in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood, Mr. Gray fell in love with the outdoors when he learned to fish on weekend trips to Barrington with his stepfather. He attended St. George High School, but had to drop out when the Depression struck to earn money for his family. Mr. Gray finished school at a YMCA and briefly attended Northwestern University, where he took journalism courses.
He went on to work for the UPI news bureau, the Chicago Sun and Chicago’s American, where he started as a general sports reporter and eventually became the outdoor editor. He held that job when Chicago’s American became Chicago Today and remained at the newspaper until it folded in 1974.
He was host of the weekly “Great Outdoors Show” from 1968 until his retirement in 1983. After that, he divided his time between Twin Lakes, a fishing hot spot, and Boca Raton, Fla.
As an outdoor writer, Mr. Gray covered mainly hunting and fishing. Whether he was swinging a shotgun or flicking a line, Mr. Gray befriended numerous notable fishing buddies and made his own noteworthy contributions to the outdoors.
Mr. Gray once fished with Abe Sapperstein, owner of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team, on Great Bear Lake in northern Manitoba. The outdoors also connected him with U.S. senators and governors from Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota.
As president of the Association of Great Lakes Outdoor Writers in 1962, Mr. Gray helped spearhead a campaign for federal legislation that created Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lake Shore near Traverse City, Mich. He also covered the bowling beat for Chicago’s American and served as president of the Bowling Writers Association of America in 1975.
Mr. Gray often fished with his wife of 64 years, Margaret, and his family. One of his favorite fishing tales was about how his daughter, Kathleen, caught a 608-pound blue fin tuna in the Northwest Territories of Canada, landing her in the International Fishing Hall of Fame at age 15 as the youngest to catch a tuna that size .
But as a general rule, Mr. Gray always caught and released his catches.
In addition to his wife and daughter, Mr. Gray is survived by three more daughters Mary Peske, Sarah Bachrodt and Barbara Barden; nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Visitation will be held from 3 to 8 p.m. Friday at Friedrich-Jones Funeral Home, 44 S. Mill St. in Naperville. A second visitation and funeral mass will be held Saturday in Twin Lakes.
