Joel Edward Gray
December 23, 1939 - October 19, 2017
Joel Edward Gray, passed away on Thursday, October 19, 2017, at age 77.
Born December 23, 1939, in Birmingham, Alabama, to Edward R. and
Sadie Cooper Gray, he was the oldest of eight children. He was a member
of the 82nd Airborne in Europe during the Berlin Crisis. During his
military service he was European ping pong champion and active in
basketball and baseball. Joel became a successful businessman with Allen
Edmund Company and retired as a resident in Orange Beach, Alabama. He
had a very outgoing and loving nature and he has left behind an army of
friends everywhere he went. He will be greatly missed by all.
Joel attended Blessed Sacrament Elementary School and John Carroll High
School in Birmingham. He continued his involvement with the Catholic
Church in Atlanta and Orange Beach. He made numerous mission trips
across US and abroad with the church. Joel was proud of his Catholic faith
and was very devoted.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Edward R. and Sadie Cooper
Gray; and sister, Regina Gray Adams.
Joel is survived by his son, Marc-Alan; grandson, Nils; siblings, Marcia
Bailey, John Gray (Betty), Herbert Gray (Sherry), Geraldine Turner (Jim),
Ed Gray (Joan), and Ben Gray (Neysa); many cousins, including Bobbi
Carol Smith; and numerous nieces and nephews.
The family will receive friends on Saturday, October 21, 2017, from 1-2
PM at Currie-Jefferson Funeral Home in Hoover, Alabama. The service
will begin at 2 PM in the Chapel and the burial will immediately follow at
Jefferson Memorial Gardens, South.
In lieu of flowers, the family request donations be made in honor of Joel to
either: The American Cancer Society (www.cancer.org) or St.
Thomas-By-The-Sea Catholic Church in Orange Beach, Alabama |