Obituary: Phillip Lone Gray (1938-2026)

Phillip Lone Gray was born April 1938 in the small resort town of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, to Alice and Keith Gray. His brother Gary retired after a successful career in the U.S. Navy, and his sister Sally was a restaurateur and an equestrian.

Phillip Lone Gray

As a boy, he enjoyed the outdoors. He was fascinated by trees, plants, birds, insects, mammals, and especially fish. Biology was his favorite subject in school. He graduated from high school in Lake Geneva in 1956, and Wisconsin State College at Stevens Point in 1960 with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Conservation. Phillip went on to complete a Master of Science in Fisheries from the University of Washington, Seattle, in 1965.  

Later that year, after a successful day of fishing in Washington state, he proudly showed his catch to two other fishermen. “Those are nothing,” they remarked, “Why don’t you come up to Alaska and work for the Department of Fish and Game with us and catch some real fish?” Thus began his career as a fisheries biologist in the Last Frontier. His first assignment was king crab research in Kodiak, Alaska, where he remembers king crab being sold for ten cents per pound. Dungeness crab, then regarded as worthless, were thrown off the dock after being accidentally caught in fishing nets.   

In 1969, he moved to Juneau, Alaska, and conducted in-depth research on coho salmon. His time was split between the office and the field, but it was in the field that Phillip excelled. His job required long hikes up salmon spawning streams to count, tag, and study salmon. Camping for weeks in the wilderness was part of the job. The Department of Fish and Game used the data collected to determine the length of the fishing season for commercial and sport fishermen in the coming year.  

In 1977, he married Carol Paulson, and they had two sons, Jack (1981), and John (1983).  

Phillip had a lifelong love of the great outdoors. He hunted moose, elk, blacktail and whitetail deer, mountain goat, Dall sheep, hares, rabbits, squirrels, geese, ducks, grouse, partridge, and pheasants. He fished through the ice in Lake Geneva and fished in the summer from piers around the lake. He fished for salmon (king, coho, sockeye, pink and chum), trout (rainbow, cutthroat, lake and brook), steelhead, halibut, pacific cod, rockfish, bass (largemouth, smallmouth, white and rock), walleye, northern pike, yellow perch, bluegill, pumpkinseed, crappies, suckers, carp, catfish, and many others, and read every hunting and fishing book or magazine he could get his hands on.

Admiralty Island in Southeast Alaska held special meaning for Phillip. Known to Alaska Natives as “Kootznoowoo” (Fortress of the Bears), it is the seventh largest island in the United States and hosts the densest population of brown bears in the world. Phillip hunted there annually, alone.

Phillip attended the First Congregational Church in Lake Geneva at an early age but did not become a Christian until 1977 following a conversation with his soon-to-be wife, Carol. Several near-death experiences (two close-range charges by brown bears and a near crash in a small float plane) eventually convinced him that God had saved him from an early death and been very patient with him. He accepted Jesus as Savior and Lord on June 15, 1977. Phillip and Carol joined Douglas Island Bible Church shortly after. He enjoyed reading through his Bible cover-to-cover each year.  

Phillip was diagnosed with prostate cancer in August 1992. After considerable research into nutrition and health, he changed to a mostly vegetarian diet. Hormone therapy, radiation, and specialty medication kept the cancer under control until 2025. Chemotherapy proved ineffective. He died on Aug. 11, 2026, at the age of 88.  

Phillip was preceded in death by a brother, Duane and sister, Joan. He is survived by his wife Carol, sons Jack (Tammy), and John (Leah), brother Gary Gray, sister Sally Robarts, four grandchildren, Lyla (17), Daniel (11), Lily (9), and David (7), and nieces and nephews.  

Phillip looked eagerly toward seeing Jesus Christ face-to-face, seeing his brother and sister who died before he was born, and many other friends. One of his favorite Bible verses was John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” He urges those who have not accepted Jesus Christ as Savior to do so.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 5, at Douglas Island Bible Church, 2770 David Street, Juneau, Alaska.