Lowell Gray

Lowell Gray, entrepreneur, technology executive and restauranteur who in the last few years of his life became a small town farmer and volunteer firefighter, died peacefully in the early hours of Memorial Day, May 29th. He was 57.

Born in New Rochelle, New York, he graduated from Harvard University in 1982.

Early in his career he held positions, in the then fledgling technology sector, at Cap Gemini, Bell Laboratories and Price Waterhouse before heeding the call to go out on his own. He was drawn to on-line services and founded an internet service provider, located in Lynn, MA called Shore.Net. Working closely with City of Lynn Officials he built Shore.Net into a regional powerhouse employing over 100 people and helping to revitalize downtown Lynn. He sold Shore.Net in March of 2000.

He then turned his attention to real estate development, turning an old rooming house next to Shore.Net headquarters into residential condominiums. When the old run-down bar next door became available, he bought that as well and started another career as the owner of the award-winning Oxford Street Grill.

His friend, architect Glenn Morris recalls, “Lowell believed in Lynn. He started Shore.Net there and it was headquartered on Oxford Street. He also started a restaurant on Oxford Street, The Oxford Street Grill, that he originally envisioned as a Kosher steak house. That restaurant is now the Blue Ox. We fought about the facade, which was very expensive for a start-up restaurant in an un-proven location, but he let me win. In the end he was proud of it, if a little bit poorer.”

After a few years, he realized that he was not the one who should run the restaurant and he sold it. He once said that he was right about the vision, but his timing was too early and it needed another leader.

Lowell married Elizabeth Shaw in 1989 and they had four amazing daughters that they cherished and loved. He was active and philanthropic in the North Shore Jewish Community and was a past President at Temple Emanu-El in Marblehead.

After divorcing his first wife Elizabeth in 2010, he married his current wife, Lina Hristova. Together, they bought and renovated an old farm in Woodstock, Vermont. Lowell was a member of the Woodstock, Vermont Volunteer Fire Department and a planning commissioner for the Town of Woodstock.

Deciding he had had enough of the IT world, he moved to the farm in 2015 and started working there full-time. In his class report for his 35th Harvard Reunion, he noted, “I have found that my priorities are not complicated: take care of myself and Lina, take care of my kids, love and help the people around me and take care of the land. We need to repair our divided world, trust one another and cooperate. I still believe that we can work together in peace and the world will restore itself.”

At various times in his life he was a member of Common Angels, a trustee of North Shore Community College and a trustee of the Salem State Enterprise Center. He was the 1999 Business Person of the Year of the Lynn Area Chamber of Commerce, the United States Small Business Administration’s 2000 Small Businessperson of the Year for Massachusetts, and received numerous other business awards. His Oxford Street Grill was named “Best of the New”, by the Boston Sunday Globe in 2005 and “Best of Boston- New Restaurant North of Boston” by Boston Magazine in 2006.

He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by Salem State College in 2000.

Besides his wife, Lina, he leaves his daughters: Rebecca, Samantha, Josephine and Alexandra. He also leaves a brother, Adam Gray. He was predeceased by his father, Stephen; his mother, Jessica; and his ex-wife, Elizabeth.

Funeral services will be held on Friday at 10 am in Temple Emanu-El 393 Atlantic Avenue, Marblehead, MA. Burial will follow in Temple Emanu-El Cemetery, Danvers Memorial Contributions made in Lowell’s memory may be made to the Appalachian Mountain Club 5 Joy St., Boston, MA 02108 or you may visit www.outdoors.org/tribute

The family will receive friends at the Swampscott Yacht Club 425 Humphrey St., Swampscott, MA immediately following the funeral service and also on Saturday from 2-4 and 7-9. The family will also receive friends on Sunday from 2-4pm at the Jewish Community Center of the North Shore, 4 Community Road, Marblehead, MA Arrangements have been entrusted to Stanetsky Hymanson Memorial Chapel, Salem, MA. For more information or to register in the online guestbook, please visit www.stanetskyhymansonsalem.com