Firman C. Gray
#G2 GRAY, Firman Carleton (AFN: 47QT-3T)*
Born: 29 Sep 1897 in Sambro, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Died: 15 Aug 1982 in Fallbrook, San Diego, California.
Father: Joseph Albert GRAY #G4 (AFN:47QT-7J) 8
Feb 1858-5 Jul 1946)
Mother: Ada Mary PUBLICOVER #G5 (AFN:47QT-8P)
(1 May 1861-17 Apr 1950)
Married: 25 Dec 1923 Helen Esther BUNGARD #G3
(AFN:47QT-41) in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, California. They had one child.
Child:
Wallace Firman GRAY #G1 (b 26 Aug 1925), m 29 Aug 1947 to Frances Mildred MCNABB #M1.
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Firman lived in Sambro, Nova Scotia, until he was 6 when he and his family moved to Halifax. Shortly after that they moved to Vancouver, British Columbia. Firman graduated into high school but never went beyond the eighth grade. As a youth he worked for a druggist, sometimes filling prescriptions. He later worked for a dairy, both in the yard and delivering milk with horse and buggy.
In 1917 at age 20 he joined the Royal Flying Corps, later being transferred to the Royal Air Force. It was in the service that he learned his life career in the aircraft business. He was born before the airplane was invented. By the time he entered the service, the so-called Jenny or JN-4 was the plane in use by the military, mainly for training. He advanced through the ranks and became an Air Mechanic First Class. His work consisted mainly of repairing planes that had been wrecked by the cadets and maintaining planes. He had several narrow escapes from death including spinning a propeller which prematurely started up, and surviving in a crash as a passenger.
After medical discharge from the military he worked for Boeing Company in Seattle and took a mechanical drawing course. He also serviced and maintained aircraft that flew the first airmail between Vancouver and Calgary.
He met his future wife on board the ship Queen which sailed from Seattle, Washington, to Wilmington, California in 1921. Firman and his parents were on their way to California. Helen, also was headed for California to join her father who had gone there the year before. They married in 1923 and lived at 1511 15th Street in Santa Monica, California. Before his marriage, Firman started working for Douglas Aircraft Company which was located on Wilshire Blvd. in Santa Monica at the time. He continued to work there for four and one-half years. At Douglas he worked on Navy torpedo planes and on the development and completion of the around-the-world cruisers.
After he was married Firman worked for various movie studios and did carpentry work. He returned to aviation when he got a job with Lockheed Aircraft in Burbank in 1927 for sixty cents an hour. He became a pattern maker in the woodworking department which is making prototypes. Eventually he transferred into the service department. He worked with engineers who developed the first retractable landing gear and even took the first extended flight in a plane with a retractable gear with an army pilot who flew from Burbank to San Diego.
During the Depression, Lockheed went broke. Firman and his friend Todd Oviatt were the only two employees left when they were laid off. The two men started a business in nearby Van Nuys repairing and maintaining airplanes, mainly Lockheed planes. After Lockheed reorganized under new owners, Firman was hired back in 1934.
In his early days with Lockheed he was well acquainted with the pioneer pilots such as Sir Kingsford Smith, Roscoe Turner, Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Laura Ingalls, Wiley Post, and Ruth Nichols.
Firman became a foreman in final assembly, then a superintendent. During World War II he was in charge of engineering flight test, a job he held until his retirement in 1962. He had 800 persons in his charge including 40 supervisors. He worked on all the aircraft built by the original Lockheed Aircraft Company with the exception of the Golden Eagle. Also, he was on the ground floor of every plane Lockheed built from the time they reorganized until his retirement. The last plane he worked on was the F-104, the Starfighter. He often said he worked on planes "from Jenny to Jet." At work he was affectionately called "Pappy."
Firman and his wife Helen remained at the 15th Street home in Santa Monica until their son Wally entered the Navy in 1943. At that time they moved to Topanga where they had owned property since at least 1925. They named their "ranch" Tres Robles after the cluster of three large oaks which dominated the property. After retirement in 1963, Firman served in community positions including being president of the Topanga Chamber of Commerce. He also was active most of his married life in the Masons and later became a Shriner. (See book Tres Robles: The Story of Firman and Helen Gray.)
While in Topanga they lived first in Hasta Manana, a home about two miles from their beloved Tres Robles. They then built a home at Tres Robles. Prior to having the home there they had a tiny cabin which they spent weekends in while still in Santa Monica. They later built a 20 by 20-foot building which they lived in until they built a larger home on the same property.
They moved to Fallbrook, California in 1968 to be near their son Wally and his family.
Throughout all their married life, Firman and Helen entertained friends. After retirement many former Lockheed associates would come to their Topanga homes for visits. This visiting of friends continued in Fallbrook.
Toward the end of their lives, they hired 24-hour nurses to care for them. Frances, Wally’s wife, spent a great deal of time coordinating their care. They died within a few months of each other choosing to remain in their home rather than going to a hospital or rest home.
They are buried at the Fallbrook Masonic Cemetery.
SOURCES:
1. Interviews with Firman by Wallace and Frances Gray, one recorded on audio tape. Also an autobiographical sketch by Firman as well as Lockheed Aircraft employment records, Royal Air Force certificate, family Bible kept by Joseph Gray, Firman’s father and a delayed birth certificate. Also a death certificate.
2. Further information is found in Upon These Plates (Family History Library Microfilm #1033698.). Wallace Gray, his son, is currently writing a book on his parents.
3. Tres Robles: The Story of Firman and Helen Gray, by Wallace F. Gray, 2000.
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