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Canadian Historian Alexander Earle Gray

Canadian historian Alexander Earle Gray is the author of seven published histories—six books about the Canadian petroleum industry, and a seventh about an international uranium cartel. “The cartel was so secret you could be jailed just for talking about it,” he says. Gray is a recipient of lifetime achievement awards from Canada’s Petroleum History Society and the U.S. Petroleum History Institute.

Gray is “without question the ‘dean’ of historians of Canadian oil,” writes Graham D. Taylor, History Professor Emeritus, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, in Imperial Standard, his epic history of Imperial Oil, the Canadian subsidiary of Exxon Mobil.

Gray was born in Medicine Hat, Saskatchewan, in 1931 but grew up at Sechelt, British Columbia -- a coastal village northwest of Vancouver at that time “accessible only by a six-hour steamship voyage or, rarely, by aircraft.” While in high school, he began writing for the local newspaper and as a stringer for the Vancouver Sun. His first feature-length article appeared in the magazine section of the Sun in 1948. In 1949 and early 1950, he was a reporter with a weekly newspaper in West Vancouver, and then with the Vancouver Sun.

In 1950, Gray moved to Calgary, Alberta, where he worked evenings in the sports department of The Albertan newspaper and days as the assistant to the oil editor. In 1951, he wrote for the precursor of Oilweek magazine, the Canadian petroleum industry’s leading trade journal of the Canadian petroleum industry. In 1953 he departed from oil writing to establish a weekly newspaper at Invermere, B.C. – later acquired by Black Press and published for 54 years before merging with another newspaper.

Gray moved back to Calgary in 1955, where he served as editor of Oilweek magazine from 1955 to 1971. He then joined Arctic Gas as director of public Affairs. Arctic Gas was a consortium of major Canadian and American gas utilities, pipeline companies, and oil and gas producers. It planned to pipeline natural gas from North America’s largest oil and gas field on Prudhoe Bay Alaska’s northern Arctic coast and from Canada’s Mackenzie River Delta to consumers across both counties.

The need for such costly Arctic gas was later obviated by new “fracking” technology (wells drilled vertically then horizontally through prolific gas-bearing shale and fractured by hydraulic pressure and chemicals). This innovation made the United States the world’s largest oil and gas producer by 2019.

Earle and Joan celebrated 65 years of marriage in September 2017. Joan died the following month.

BOOKS BY EARLE GRAY

Impact of Oil: Developing Canada’s Resources. Toronto: Ryerson Press/Maclean Hunter, 1969. A layman’s account of how oil is formed, found, produced, transported, refined, marketed, and processed into petrochemicals products from carpets to lipstick.

The Great Canadian Oil Patch. Toronto: Maclean-Hunter, 1970. The first comprehensive history of Canada’s petroleum industry.

Super Pipe: The Arctic Pipeline—World’s Greatest Fiasco? Toronto: Griffin House, 1979. “An important addition to the bookshelves of any person interested in one of the most significant events of recent Canadian history.” Ian McDougall, law professor, Osgoode Hall, York University.

The Great Uranium Cartel. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1982.“Solid account of one of the most bizarre episodes in business history.” Globe and Mail. “…a lively thread of suspense from chapter to chapter. Toronto Star.

Wildcatters: The Story of Pacific Petroleums and Westcoast Transmission. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1982. “A finely-honed portrait of one of Canada’s gustiest and most successful trailblazers… a good read.” Toronto Star.

Free Trade, Free Canada. Woodville, Ontario: Canadian Speeches, 1988. On the eve of one of Canada’s most historic national elections, 24 notable Canadians argue the case for free trade with the United States. My lead article assesses 140 years of turbulent Canadian-American trade relations, involving politicians, plutocrats, smugglers, and spies.

Forty Years in the Public Interest: A History of the National Energy Board. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2000. Opens the door on the Canadian energy industry and provides a fascinating look at the workings of the NEB.

The Great Canadian Oil Patch: Second edition. The Petroleum Era from Birth to Peak. Edmonton: JuneWarren Publishing, 2005. Extensively updated and revised with more than 60% new content. “A book to rival Pierre Berton’s National Dream.” Desmond Morton, founding director, McGill Institute for the Study of Canada.

Ontario’s Petroleum Legacy: The birth, evolution, and challenges of a global industry. Edmonton: Heritage Community Foundation, 2008. How Canada gave birth to the global petroleum industry “Fascinatingly told.” W.R. Wilson, Former Director of Education, Algoma Board of Education.

About Canada: “My God, this is a great country.” Toronto: Civil Sector Press, 2012. “A bright, lively book that serves to remind Canadians that as a country we have done much to be proud of.” Historian Robert Bothwell, author of The Penguin History of Canada.

Gesner, Williams and the Birth of the Oil Industry. Oil-Industry History, Petroleum History Institute, Oil City, PA., v. 9, no. 1, 2008, pp 11-23. Tells how Canada invented the petroleum industry. Lead paper delivered to a symposium of Canadian and American petroleum historians, Petrolia Ontario, May 7-10, 2008, sponsored by Petroleum History Society, Calgary, and Petroleum History Institute, Oil City, PA.

Gray published more than one thousand articles in Oilweek, The Toronto Star, The Star Weekly, Maclean’s, The Financial Post, Canadian Magazine, The Canadian Encyclopedia, and others.