JUNE ELIZABETH MILTON GRAY STOBAUGH
1944-2017
June Elizabeth Milton Gray Stobaugh, beloved wife, mother, and grandmother, died on Wednesday, the 15th of March 2017, in Houston, TX, from complications relating to endometrial cancer.
June was born on the 19th of October 1944, in Chattanooga, TN, and was graduated from Girls’ Preparatory School there. She won a merit-based General Electric College Bowl Scholarship and television appearance for her essay, “Why I want to go to College.” In 1966 she received a B.A. degree in English from Wellesley College, where she was vice president of her class junior year and president of her dormitory senior year. For her honors work in English, June wrote a play in poetry that was produced at the Senior Arts Festival.
During her college years, June spent the summers reporting for the Chattanooga Times in Chattanooga, TN. After graduation, she worked for a year at J. Walter Thompson Advertising Agency in New York before marrying Robert Toms Gray III. They began their marriage in Atlanta, where June was employed as a reporter at the Gwinnett Daily News and then as the first arts/music coordinator for the Georgia Tech Student Center. In 1970 the Grays moved to Houston, when Shell relocated its headquarters there. In 1975 June received an M.A. degree in English from the University of Houston and presented an excerpt of her thesis at the South-Central Renaissance Conference. In her twenties, she wrote poetry, some of which was published, a play accepted in a regional festival, articles, and an unpublished novel.
With the birth of her children, June turned her energies to non-profit groups, particularly to those involving children. June is a past president of the Junior League of Houston, the first director of development for the Children’s Museum of Houston, and former executive director of Young Audiences of Houston. For over four decades, she focused her activities on improving children’s health care and classroom education and on inspiring in young people a love of libraries and the arts.
Several years after Robert Gray’s death in 1989, June married Robert Blair Stobaugh Jr., then the Charles E. Wilson professor at Harvard Business School, and moved with her sons to Belmont, MA. She always said that she felt blessed to have had two wonderful husbands. While in the Boston area, she served on the Board of the Friends of the Library at Wellesley College for nine years, five as alumnae chair, and began to collect artists’ books.
Upon returning to Houston in late 2004, after Prof. Stobaugh retired from Harvard Business School, June served for six years on the Board of Directors of Bo’s Place, including one year as its president. In 2012 she was honored at the Hearts of Hope luncheon with the Robin Bush Award, given in memory of the daughter of President and Mrs. George H. W. Bush to a member of the community who has made a marked difference in the lives of children. In the last ten years, June has served on the Board of Directors of Houston Hospice, the Rienzi Garden Endowment Fund, and the Sustaining Club of the Junior League of Houston. In early March, June was selected as the recipient of the 2017 Adelaide Lovett Baker Award, presented each year to an outstanding sustaining member of the Junior League of Houston, for her continued voluntarism and life-long commitment to the community. As a member of St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, she participated in its community outreach program as a tutor-mentor to schoolchildren. June was a member of the Garden Club of Houston, the Junior League of Houston, “the breakfast club” (tbc), the Book Club, the Forest Club, and the Chilton Club of Boston.
June valued family, friends, church, and education. Her grandchildren gave her immense pleasure – from playing Old Maid or patty-cake with little hands to decorating gingerbread houses at Christmas to reading books at any time – and her granddaughters Milly and Eliza are named in her honor. She had many incredibly supportive friends, all of whom she adored. One friend described June as having Southern charm and Yankee efficiency. Her faith was a strong presence and comfort. For love of family, she canoed through rapids, camped for days at a time, and cooked over a campfire in her young-married days. In her later years of marriage, she and Prof. Stobaugh took memorable trips with their blended family, encouraging relationships through shared experiences. June always felt that her life was full of abundance and joy.
Mrs. Stobaugh is survived by her husband Robert Blair Stobaugh Jr. of Houston, formerly of Belmont, MA; her son, Robert Toms Gray IV, his wife Lauren Vestewig, and their children Rowan Toms and Elizabeth Ryan (“Eliza”) Gray of Houston; her son, Geoffrey Milton Gray, his wife, Eleanor Reese, and their daughters, Whitney Kenyon and Margaret Milton (“Milly”) Gray of Charleston SC; her step-children, Robert Blair Stobaugh III and wife, Carolyn of Tampa, FL; Susan Stobaugh Samuelson and husband, William Franklin (“Bill”) of Belmont, MA; and Clay Edward Stobaugh and wife, Mary Gallatin of New York, NY; her stepgrandchildren, Robert Blair Stobaugh IV of Los Angeles, CA, Field Edward Stobaugh of Newport Beach, CA, Marion Crawford (“Maisy”) Samuelson of San Francisco, CA, Kendall Augustus Parker (“Ned”) Samuelson of Boston, MA, and William Couper (“Couper”) Samuelson, his wife Julia Boorstin, and their children Henry and Benjamin Samuelson of Los Angeles, CA.
She is predeceased by her parents, Helen Ryan and Robert McCarley Milton, formerly of Lookout Mountain, TN; her sister Helen Catherine Milton; her first husband, Robert Toms Gray III; stepson, William Parker “Bill” Stobaugh; and her grandson, Matthew Bishop Gray.
The family expresses appreciation to Chaundra Garner for her loving care and to Mary Pickins and Gloria Nugent for their years with the family.
The memorial service is to be conducted at eleven o’clock in the morning on Friday, the 24th of March, at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, 717 Sage Road in Houston, where the Rev. Dr. Russell J. Levenson Jr, Rector, and the Rev. Mary Wilson, Senior Associate Rector for Pastoral Care, are to officiate. Immediately following the service, all are invited to greet the family during a reception to be held in the nearby Bagby Parish Hall.
In lieu of customary remembrances, and for those desiring, memorial contributions may be directed towards Bo’s Place, 10050 Buffalo Speedway, Houston, TX 77054; St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, 717 Sage Rd., Houston, TX 77056; or to the charity of one’s choice.