Gray, William H(erbert), III (1941– )

US politician and Baptist minister. Gray, a Democrat, represented the largely African-American second district of Philadelphia in the US House of Representatives (1979–91). He chaired the House Budget Committee (1982–88) and became the House majority whip (1989–91). Thought to have prospects of attaining even higher political office, he surprised everyone when in 1991 he left Congress to become president of the United Negro College Fund.

Gray was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He studied at Drew Seminary (1966) and Princeton Theological Seminary (1970), in addition to carrying out postgraduate work at several other universities. Between 1964 and 1972 he also served as pastor of the Union Baptist Church in Montclair, New Jersey. In 1972 he became senior minister at Bright Hope Baptist Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where both his father and grandfather had previously been ministers. In the late 1970s, in the hope of furthering African-American causes, Gray abandoned the religious arena for that of politics.