EVGRAY

BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY : Edwin Gray was born in Washington, DC in 1925. He was one of 14 children. At age eleven, he became interested in the emerging field of electronics, when he watched some of the first demonstrations of primitive radar being tested across the Potomac River. He left home at 15 and joined the Army, attending their advanced engineering school for one year before he was discovered and honorably discharged for being under age. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he re-enlisted in the Navy and served three years of combat duty in the Pacific.

After the War, he worked as a mechanic and continued his studies in electro-magnetics. After experimenting for years, he learned how to "split the positive" in 1958 and had his first Electric Magnetic Association (EMA) motor model running in 1961. His third EMA prototype was successfully tested for 32 days straight before it was torn down for analysis. With this report in hand, Gray started looking for serious funding. After being turned down by every major corporation and venture capital group he approached, he formed his own Limited partnership in 1971. By early 1973, EVGray Enterprises, Inc. had an office in Van Nuys, California, hundreds of private investors and a new (#4) EMA motor prototype. Ed Gray had also received a "Certificate of Merit" from Ronald Reagan, then Governor of California.

By the summer of 1973, Gray was doing demonstrations of his technology and receiving some very positive press. By later that year, Gray had teamed up with automobile designer Paul M. Lewis, to build the first fuelless, electric car in America. But trouble was brewing.

On July 22, 1974, an unprovoked Los Angeles District Attorney's Office raided the office and shop of EVGray Enterprises, and confiscated all of their business records and working prototypes. For 8 months, the DA tried to get Gray's stockholders to file charges against him, but none would. Gray was eventually charged with "grand theft," but even this bogus charge couldn't stick and was finally dropped. By March 1976, Gray pleaded guilty to two minor SEC violations, was fined, and released. The DA's office never returned his prototypes.

In spite of these troubles, a number of good things were happening. His first U.S. Patent, on the motor design, issued in June of 1975, and by February 1976, Gray was nominated for "Inventor of the Year" for "discovering and proving a new form of electric power" by the Los Angeles Patent Attorney's Association. Despite this support, Gray kept a much lower profile after this time. In the late 1970's, Zetech, Inc. acquired Gray's technology and EVGray Enterprises ceased to exist. In the early 1980's, Gray offered the U.S. Government his technology to augment Reagan's SDI program. He actually wrote letters to every member of Congress, both Senators and Representatives, as well as the President, Vice President, and every member of the Cabinet. Remarkably, in response to this letter writing campaign, Gray did not receive a single reply or even an acknowledgment!

During the early 1980's, Gray lived in Council, Idaho, where he wrote and was granted his other two U.S. Patents. By 1986, he had a facility in Grand Prairie, Texas, where a number of new prototype EMA motors were built. By 1989, he was working on propulsion applications of the technology, and maintaining his residence in Council, Idaho, as well as shop facilities in Council, Grande Prairie, and Sparks, Nevada.

Edwin V. Gray died at his shop in Sparks, Nevada, in April, 1989, under mysterious circumstances. He was 64 and in good health.