Ambassador C. Boyden Gray

Gray, Ambassador C. Boyden

February 6, 1943 - May 21, 2023

Ambassador C. Boyden Gray died peacefully in his sleep on Sunday, May 21, 2023, at his home in Georgetown. He was 80.

A fixture of Washington's political and social scenes for decades, Boyden was a friend and intellectual inspiration to countless people in the capital and beyond. Presidents and Supreme Court justices, friends and family, across the political divide, knew his home as a gathering place to debate policy and tell dirty jokes. He was brilliant at law and even better at gossip, and the only subject that delighted him more than deregulation was his daughter, Eliza, and his toddler grandchildren, whom he was beginning to instruct on the excesses of the administrative state.

Boyden was fond of long walks through Georgetown and the woods of Maine, and his unmistakable frame - lanky, patrician, stooped in thought - was instantly recognizable to his neighbors. It helped that he was sometimes accompanied by his pet pig, Penelope. He courted eccentricity, driving an ethanol-powered Pontiac that was impractical but useful in charming reporters, whom he adored and cultivated, in the years when Washington was smaller. He played tennis every week with Katharine Graham, was hooked on bridge, belonged to the Metropolitan and Alibi clubs, and loved his "little block" of Georgetown, where he lived in a large yellow corner house for nearly 40 years. It never ran out of his three nonnegotiable vices: scotch, red wine, and chocolate.

Born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the third of four boys, to Gordon Gray and Jane Craige Gray, Boyden, known to his friends as C.B., was raised in Chapel Hill and Washington, DC, in the years that his father was a towering figure there. Boyden adored his mother, a singer who gave him his height, and who died when he was only ten. His brothers and first cousins - nine Gray boys in all - formed a sprawling family that he cherished. He attended St. Mark's School, then Harvard. A rare Southerner, he was known for DJing parties with his collection of Motown records; he rowed crew, wrote for the Crimson, and joined the Porcellian Club. At the University of North Carolina law school, he finished first in his class while also serving in the Marine Corps Reserve, where a drill sergeant nicknamed him Ichabod Crane.

After clerking for the chief justice of the Supreme Court, Earl Warren, Boyden continued his career at Wilmer Cutler & Pickering, where he became a close protégé of Lloyd Cutler and began his own tradition of mentoring young lawyers - a source of joy that continued as his work shifted to politics. He was an indispensable partner and personal friend to President George H.W. Bush for twelve years, four as White House Counsel. He was married, briefly, to Carol Taylor, and as one of the capital's leading bachelors he enjoyed the company of witty, accomplished women, many of whom became close friends. He delighted in sparring at his dinner table, on the op-ed page, on cable news, and with his stepmother, Nancy Gray Pyne.

In recognition of all that he accomplished - he was instrumental in the shaping the Americans With Disabilities Act and Clean Air Act - he was made an ambassador to the European Union. He founded an eponymous and influential private firm, while continuing to advise presidents, especially on matters involving the Supreme Court.

Boyden was a philanthropist, an environmentalist, and a faithful member of Georgetown's Christ Church. He was happiest with family, especially during summers in Maine, where he could reflect on life from his porch overlooking the boats of Northeast Harbor. Boyden is survived by his daughter Eliza Gray, his son-in-law Nick Summers, his grandchildren Wyatt and Jane, and his brothers Gordon and Bernard. He is predeceased by his beloved brother Burton. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Bishop Walker School for Boys (bishopwalkerschool.org/onlinegiving; 202-678-1515). Services will be private.