Warren native David Gray converts to Catholic media mogul
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David L. Gray is an American Catholic theologian, historian and media mogul.
He also is a Warren native.
The man who grew up in multiple Warren neighborhoods now is president and publisher of St. Dominic's Media Inc. Gray also hosts a weekly radio talk show on Guadalupe Radio Network.
According to his website, Gray talks about a variety of topics from liturgy and theology to the debate over critical race theory and secret societies.
He also debates with callers the tastes of bourbon and doughnuts. The show airs 5 p.m. local time every Wednesday on the 38 English-speaking radio stations.
Family is important to this converted Catholic. But looking back at his upbringing in a diverse Warren, Gray said his changing family situations affected his young life in a negative way.
A WARREN UPBRINGING
"My parents, Gwendolyn McCullough and Oscar Scott never married; so, until my mother married Roy McCullough, we lived with her parents on the east side of Warren -- 2476 Brier St. SE -- where my Aunt Gloria Gray still lives today, and I went to Willard Elementary until second grade. After Mom and Roy married, we moved in with him on the northwest side of Warren on Lexington Avenue, near Jamestown, and I started at McGuffey in third grade," Gray recalled.
"At the time, I did not understand what was going on, but I did not adapt well from being the only child to now having siblings and ended up failing fourth grade and having severe issues of loneliness and depression."
Gray said school officials put him in learning disability classes.
"It was odd at the time because I did not have a learning disability, but that's just what they recommended for kids who had failing grades," Gray said.
After his mother's divorce when he was in seventh grade, Gray said he moved back to Brier Street with his grandmother and started at East Junior High.
"This ended up being a good thing because the special education teachers at East realized I did not have a learning disability. They said to me they were putting me back in regular classes. 'You don't belong here.'" Gray said. "Regular! That felt good."
By high school, Gray said he lived with his mom in Warren Heights.
"But she sent me back to live with Grandma because she did not like the people who were my friends in the Warren Heights," he said.
Through his years at Warren G. Harding, Gray said he did normal things such as band, track and vocational accounting.
In high school band, Gray said he liked playing the trumpet until he got kicked out for what Gray said was being "a clown."
"To this day, I hate that that happened because I really loved the trumpet," he said, "But I've been able to enjoy it again lately with my daughter in eighth grade who is playing trumpet."
Being in special education all those years made him struggle with confidence, and he had to work even harder with lessons, Gray said.
"There are some things I just didn't know or know how to do -- like studying and writing papers," he said.
One of his teachers, Phyliss Wing, made it a point to make sure Gray graduated on time, he remembered.
Gray recalled these academic struggles when he encountered a failing student later in life as a youth mentor for Ohio Guidestone.
"I would take time to work with them and talk to them or their parents if necessary … and I would push them and show them how to study and write and prepare for tests," he said.
As far as his religious life, Gray said he was "nominally Protestant."
"I was never 'churched' as they say, but I often went to Grace African Methodist Episcopal Church on Tod Avenue with my grandmother. When I was in 11th grade, I asked her if I could be baptized. I didn't even know what that was, but I knew it made you a member of the church, But she said I wasn't ready," he said.
A CONVERSION STORY
His search for the truth began after graduating from Harding in 1991 when he went off to college at Central State University.
When he was at a low point in his life, Gray said he found the Catholic Church, 15 years later in 2006.
"A series of bad decisions … had me facing nine years for an embezzlement-related offense," he said.
In the county jail in 2004, Gray said he decided to commit suicide.
"That is the moment, when I was trying to kill myself through suffocation that I heard an audible voice that said, 'I love you. I am here,'" Gray said.
That night, Gray said he read the four Gospels for the first time in his life.
"I was completely amazed, and I was also upset that I didn't believe sooner. So, I decided to follow Him who saved my life," Gray said.
Gray said his historical search led him to the Catholic Church.
"I did not want to be a Catholic, but I was convinced, both historically and theologically, that the Church of the Apostles still exists in the Catholic Church today -- most obviously with the very unique teaching on the Holy Eucharist," he said.
After serving six-and-a-half years in prison, including doing ministry with the other inmates, Gray said he encountered another life crisis after being released.
BACK TO WARREN
In 2011, Gray himself was divorced and had to move back to Brier Street SE.
"It was funny being back in that neighborhood as a Catholic. I could always see St. James -- now called something else -- and JFK from my house, and I had friends who went to those schools. I remember the nuns of Notre Dame who lived near Willard Elementary, but the only thing I knew about the Catholic Church was that they were 'different' as my grandmother would say," he said.
He said he didn't remember seeing blacks walking into those churches.
Now back home, Gray said he walked to St. James for daily Masses, serve at the altar and work at the St. Vincent de Paul Center on Niles Road SE to help serve food to the needy.
Gray eventually settled on going to church regularly at St. Dominic in Youngstown, where he learned Dominican spirituality from the brothers there.
He moved away again in 2014 and two years later married another Warren native, Felicia Ziegler-Gray. In 2017, the Grays moved to Belleville, Ill., a suburb of St. Louis, and have four daughters.
Gray said his generation in Warren had failed to emphasize family values on their children.
"My generation did not do what we needed to do for Warren. All my friends made babies but didn't make families," he said. "The summer of 2013, some friends of mine would walk the streets at night and engage the youth there, and it was crazy because we would ask them who their father was, and it was almost always someone we knew from school and here was their kid out at inappropriate hours doing inappropriate things.
"We would ask them what do you want to do with your life, and it was always they wanted to be an athlete or a rapper. Kids just want to be what they see as being successful. I didn't know what I wanted to be at that age, but one day I saw my father Oscar working at Packard spinning tap around a thingy all day, and I knew that I didn't want to do that for the rest of my life. That didn't look like success to me," he said.
His aunt Gloria Gray, who lives in the same Brier Street home Gray grew up in, said her nephew keeps in touch often with calls, cards and letters.
"What a wonderful, thoughtful, polite nephew David is," she said. "He always had put other people first, I am not surprised that he has done well in life."
Gray said he was blessed to attend college, gaining bachelor of science degrees in business administration from Central State University and a Master of Arts in Catholic theology from Ohio Dominican University.
"Looking back now, I think my dad was successful -- just depends on how you define success. He was healthy and was a good father and didn't harm anyone,'' Gray said about Oscar Scott. "He tried to make a family -- failed a lot at it, but being a good dad was important to him. I know my hometown would be better off if we just recapture family and fatherhood. All my friends growing up had two parents in the home. I don't know why we didn't imitate that."