GRAY, Jeffrey (Jeff)

Vistoso Funeral Home, Oro Valley, Arizona Jeffrey Gray June 5, 1960 - February 26, 2013 Jeff Gray grew up in Flagstaff, Arizona, graduating from Flagstaff High School and Northern Arizona University. Jeff was a terrific athlete, playing football and baseball in his younger years before gravitating to Cross Country and Track and Field at Flag High where he achieved his Varsity letter in his sophomore year. Long distance training runs throughout the Flagstaff area’s forest service trails and roads were routine and occurred regardless of the season or the weather. Weekend trips to Phoenix to run in marathon races were common. Jeff was also a bicycling enthusiast, competing in road races and time trials before abandoning the competitive side of the sport for recreational enjoyment. Jeff began skiing at the age of 4 and in the winter time, downhill skiing ruled supreme. Learning to ski in Flagstaff at the Arizona SnowBowl proved to be a valuable training ground; as people often say, if you can ski everything at the SnowBowl, you can ski anything anywhere. Jeff proved this to be the case over the years and, at last count, tallied 29 ski resorts that he had visited – and conquered. Jeff’s skiing was greatly influenced by ski mentor and great friend Tony Sandoval, whose graceful form and style was a lasting influence, both on and off the slopes. Less than a month before his death, Jeff completed one last memorable ski trip to Park City, Utah with friends and family. After high school, Jeff joined the National Guard and went to boot camp at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina and also began his career with Motorola in Phoenix, Arizona where he worked in integrated circuit fabrication. Advancing as far as he could without a college degree, he later returned to NAU and received his B.S. in Geography and Geographic Information Management, which began his career as a geospatial analyst/cartographer. After working for several years as a mapmaker for a commercial real estate brokerage firm in Phoenix, Jeff took his skills to the defense contracting industry in San Diego, California. Jeff’s career subsequently led him to reside in Hawaii, Virginia, and Texas. He also travelled widely in connection with his career, including Redlands, DC, St. Louis, Germany, and the Middle East. In the past two years, Jeff proudly deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan two times, supporting military missions to keep our troops safe. While working at Motorola, Jeff met an old acquaintance from high school – Maria Swarts. Jeff and Maria fell in love and thus began their grand adventure as they built their new life together. The early years were filled with finishing college degrees and lots of skiing, hiking, and biking. The day of Jeff’s graduation from NAU saw the two of them packing the car amidst friends and family as they headed back to Phoenix for work. It wasn’t long before they found themselves living in beautiful San Diego. As if San Diego wasn’t nice enough, they moved to Honolulu for a couple of years before they both decided that it was probably time to return to Arizona where they bought a beautiful home in Oro Valley near Maria’s mother. Jeff and Maria loved their home in Oro Valley, but Jeff’s desire to fully utilize all his work skills put pressure on him to accept a position that meant time away from home and travel. Unwilling to uproot their lives again, Jeff made the decision to have Maria stay in Arizona while he spent time working on the east coast and abroad. Not happy with the prospect of leaving her alone, the decision was made that they should get a dog. Now that they had their house and a plan to stay in Tucson, bringing a dog into their lives was no longer an impractical idea. Jeff was never someone to do anything half-heartedly, so he decided that they should get a really BIG dog and went to work on convincing Maria that this idea made all the sense in the world. Before long, Maggie – an American Mastiff – joined their home when she was eight weeks old and weighed 18 pounds - she now weighs 130 pounds. Subsequently, Jeff decided that Maggie needed a little brother and along came Dude, who will likely top-out at around 180 pounds. It all made sense to Jeff: big house = big dogs; the equation was simple. The matter of travel in connection with his work also seemed to be a simple equation, but it was not so simple in many other ways. Jeff’s job and responsibilities were complicated and stressful. He had become a valuable asset in the geospatial intelligence community and his expertise was is great demand in different places. Jeff had a very strong set of work values and a sense of commitment and duty to his country. It is no coincidence that his rapid changes in career responsibilities and travel coincided with the events that unfolded after September 11. While Jeff pushed himself with his work, some aches and pains began to develop that he attributed to middle age and old athletic injuries. He figured these aches were the result of colliding with a tree while tucking down the Waterfall run when he was a senior in high school, aggressively skiing the bumps for many years, and thousands of miles of running and biking. As the aches and pains increased, he presumed that it was just arthritis and continued to persevere until his body could no longer endure the damage done by the cancer. His sudden departure has left his family and friends stunned and deeply saddened. In the past few weeks, Jeff commented that he had done more in his life than most and that everything was okay. Jeff is survived by his wife Maria Swarts; his mother Roycee Solberg (Bob); his father Gary Gray (Lila); his sister Terry Mowrer (Clint, nephews Kevin and Michael); his beloved niece Jayde Swarts; and his puppies Maggie and Dude. His family is very grateful to life-long friends Sam Sprague and John Sandoval who were able to spend time with him during his last days.