Father Howard Gray, SJ, a native Clevelander, entered the Jesuits after graduation from Saint Ignatius High School in 1948. He followed the usual Jesuit formation and education program, including his three-year regency at Saint Ignatius High School, Chicago, and then ordination in 1961 at Colombiere College (now Center).

Following his theological studies, Fr. Gray made his tertianship at St. Beuno’s in North Wales under the famed Peter Paul Kennedy. There followed two years at Colombiere College where he also served as Acting Dean (1963-1965). He did graduate work at the University of Wisconsin (1965-1968) where he was a Knapp Fellow and then from 1968 to 1975 served as Formation Director for the Detroit Province and Rector at Loyola House, Berkley. He spent 1975-76 at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California. From 1976 to 82 he was rector of the Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge and then for one year (1982-83) its dean. In 1983 he was named provincial of the then Detroit Province, from 1985-89 he was elected the Vice President of the Major Superiors (CMSM). Completing his term as provincial, Fr. Gray went to the Philippine Jesuit Province as a consultant from ’89-90. In 1990 he joined the late Walter Farrell as Tertian Director for the Detroit Province. From 1996 to 2017 he has served at Boston College (Director of the Ignatian Spirituality Center), rector and Assistant for Mission and Identity at John Carroll University, and then Assistant to the President at Georgetown University. 

Since July 2017 he has been at the Manresa Jesuit Retreat House, Bloomfield Hills. Father Gray attended the Jesuit General Congregations Congregations 33 (1983) and 34 (1995). He has lectured and given courses in Eastern Africa, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, received 6 honorary doctorates, and authored some 60 articles on Ignatian spirituality and ministry.