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Four times he was elected Mayor and no-one in this community as ever held that position more than him. When asked for his most memorable moment during that time, Walter Gray recalled being called into City Hall on the last day before Colin Basran would take office. The City Manager, Doug Gilchrist had asked him in to sign off on an important piece of business.
"He said, 'You just bought the Canadian National Railway,' recalled Gray, "49 Kilometres, Kelowna to Vernon.' Haha, Where do I sign?"
Rails to Trails was one effort Kelowna's longest-serving Mayor is proud to have been a part of. Another is the Mission Greenway. Gray was quick to give the credit to his predecessor Jim Stuart's leadership for having the vision for the project, but it was under Gray's leadership that the project came to fruition.
"There were a lot of dissenters along the way, but we managed one by one to kind of dispel that and it wound up being an extremely popular thing," said Gray.
"It also started to change the culture of people that live here." Gray believes it was a big boost to making Kelowna's personality more about physical activity.
Another key event during Gray's tenure was the 2003 wildfire that destroyed hundreds of homes and the historic KVR Trestles. "We mustered together with a committee," recalled Gray, "and moved very quickly and got the funding to rebuild those." But more importantly Gray is proud of how the community responded in the aftermath of the loss of 239 homes.
"It wound up being a rallying point in our history. When neighbours got to know neighbours," Gray doesn't take any credit for it. But he saw it as a defining time for Kelowna.
"It was good news out of tragedy."
Gray was a champion of developing a transit system in Kelowna. And he credits his role on the BC Transit Board, for getting him to, 'get on board' so to speak.
"Every month at a meeting, it would give me an education," he remembered. And he looks back with pride that Kelowna stuck with building a transit system despite a lot of criticism and low ridership in the beginning. "It really did pay off in the end," he said. In fact, he believes it played a significant role in Premier Gordon Campbell's decision to expand UBC to Kelowna.
'One of the considerations was that we were providing, if you like, student transportation and that's where buses really took off in Kelowna." Last year Kelowna's bus system saw over five million rides.
Gray credits airport managers Roger Sellick and Sam Samaddar for making the best of the opportunities, but he views the development of the Kelowna International Airport as the most important thing that's happened during his time in office. "That is the biggest single asset Kelowna has that makes Kelowna what it is today," said Gray.
Gray, whose background was in broadcasting, has served as president of the Chamber of Commerce and first joined council as an Alderman in 1986. He was elected Mayor in 1996, 1999, 2002 and 2011.
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