C Boyden Gray

"his proudest accomplishment was elevating to that Court Justice Clarence Thomas, its most conservative member." C. Boyden Gray, who personified the conservative legal establishment as a lawyer involved in judicial appointments, policy, diplomacy or fund-raising for every Republican president since Ronald Reagan, died on Sunday May 21 2023 at his home in the Georgetown section of Washington. He was 80. C. Boyden Gray, of the District of Columbia, is the former Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy Diplomacy (2008-2009) and former Special Envoy for European Union Affairs (2008-2009). He is now a founding partner of the D.C.-based law firm, Boyden Gray & Associates. Prior to his appointment as Special Envoy, Mr. Gray served as U.S. Ambassador to the European Union in Brussels from 2006 to 2007. From 1969 to 1981 and 1993 to 2005, Mr. Gray was a partner in the Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale and Dorr law firm in Washington. He served as White House Counsel in the administration of President George H.W. Bush (1989-1993) and earlier served as Legal Counsel to Vice President Bush (1981-1989). Mr. Gray also served as counsel to the Presidential Task Force on Regulatory Relief during the Reagan Administration. Clayland Boyden Gray, who went by Boyden and, to close friends, C.B., was born on Feb. 6, 1943, in Winston-Salem, N.C. His father Gordon Gray was a national security adviser to President Dwight D. Eisenhower and president of the University of North Carolina. Gordon Gray and Mr. Bush’s father, Senator Prescott Bush, were golf buddies. Gordon Gray’s father, Bowman, had earned a fortune as president and chairman of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. Gray studied history at Harvard College, graduated in 1964 and served in the Marine Corps Reserve. He graduated at the head of his class from the University of North Carolina’s law school in 1968. He then clerked for Chief Justice Earl Warren and became a corporate lawyer at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, a prominent Washington firm. Mr. Gray married Carol Taylor in 1984, and they divorced a few years later. In addition to their daughter, Eliza, he is survived by two brothers, Bernard and Gordon, and two grandchildren.