An active flight instructor for more than 50 years, Ira Gray was the first commercial pilot in the Gadsden, Alabama area. His flying career begain in the 1930s when he opened his first training school. Durin gthe early ears of World War II, he trained British, French and American cadets at Tuscaloosa, Alabama. In 1945, he was commissioned in the USAAF. He served overseas in the China-Burma-India theater where he flew more than 50 "hunp" missions. In 1946, he opened a flying school at Gadsden Airport under a government program to train returning veterans. During the Korean conflict he trained USAF cadets at Bainbridge, Georgia. Ira later initiated commercial flight training at Gadsden Junior College where he was chief instructor. He logged more than 20,000 career flying hours.