Documentarian Tim Gray is on a mission to fulfill a lifelong goal that took root when he was a kid growing up in Rhode Island.
The founder and president of the nonprofit World War II Foundation and producer of 40 documentaries on World War II is racing against time to achieve his objective of telling every personal story there is to be told about the heroes of the “Greatest Generation.”
“When I was about six, I picked up a book about World War II and just got hooked. It was one of those World War II encyclopedias, and they were talking about the battle in North Africa and [German Field Marshal Erwin] Rommel,” Gray told The Epoch Times.
“It’s just one of those things where you pick up a book when you’re six years old, and you just find the topic fascinating. That’s kind of how it was with me.”
His newest documentary, “Miles, Morale and Memories: Bob Hope and WWII,” will air nationwide on more than 300 local PBS stations throughout May.
Using animated maps and interviews with Hollywood historians, authors, and combat veterans, the documentary examines the impact the legendary entertainer and his troupe of performers had on World War II and why President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked some of Hollywood’s top stars of radio and movies to hold a microphone instead of a gun in the war.
Gray, a recipient of the American Public Television National Programming Excellence Award, six Regional Emmy Awards, and dozens of international film awards, recalled his parents taking his somewhat unique passion in stride.
“My dad was a journalist. He worked for the Providence Journal at the time,” he said. “When I was 10, I asked for Edward R. Murrow’s broadcast from London during the Blitz as a Christmas present. And they kind of looked at me and they’re like, ‘O.K.’”
After graduating from the University of Rhode Island, Gray initially followed in his father’s footsteps. He became a reporter, then a television sports announcer and news anchor in several states and U.S. markets, including Michigan, Washington, Florida (Fort Myers and Orlando), New York, and Providence, Rhode Island. While in Fort Myers, he was designated sportscaster of the year by the Florida Sportscasters Association and a top features reporter.
The Past Educates the Future
As soon as Gray produced his first WWII documentary, “2006’s D-Day: The Price of Freedom,” he knew there was no going back.Today, with just over 60,000 World War II veterans left who served in the United States Army, Navy, or Marines, it’s more important than ever for Gray to continue his quest to tell every story possible. The Department of Veterans Affairs has projected that the number of living WWII veterans has fallen below 0.5 percent of the total number of Americans who served in the conflict.
Gray said their “humility” can inspire young people to “tackle their problems in life, in adversity, the way that these men and women did.”
“They fought a World War, they came home, they were very humble about their role in saving the world. These people came back, and they didn’t want recognition; they didn’t want a lot of accolades. They just wanted to go on with their lives.”
It’s a striking contrast to what has taken hold today, said Gray, about the obsession of “social media,” where “lives are based on clicks and likes.”
Back then, even entertainers, such as Bob Hope, the subject of his new documentary, were focused on the good they could be doing for others rather than themselves.
“What [Hope] did during the war, which when you look at it in its totality is incredible,” Gray said.
“Logging 80,000 miles during a world war in prop planes, planes with propellers; there were no jets. He and his team really wanted to do this. And they went to the ends of the earth literally to perform for the troops in Europe and the Pacific.”
The documentaries are narrated by some of the biggest names in television, music, sports, and movies, and filmed in locations where the stories actually played out across the globe. Actor and longtime advocate of America’s servicemen and women, Gary Sinise, is the narrator of the newest, “Miles, Morale and Memories: Bob Hope and WWII.”
“We reach out to teachers all over the world to let them know that this content is free and that their students can spend an hour and just watch this and maybe have a discussion about Auschwitz or Dachau or D-Day or Pearl Harbor,” Gray said.
From the start, Gray and his production team knew they were up against the clock.
“We started to do mass interviews, sitting down 50 veterans or survivors at a time. We knew that when we got to 2025, there would not be many left,” Gray said.
“We could do this for another 20 years for what we have in our archives. Once they’re all gone, you’re going to lose a lot of important in-person narratives. We’re trying to make sure that their voices carry on long after they’re gone.”
After almost 20 years of listening, Gray never tires of discussing the lessons we can all learn from these conversations.
”That’s a question I love to answer,” he said.
“That question goes back to being humble. That question comes back to working together as a team to solve problems. Even though it was probably the most momentous time of their life—their teenage years or their early 20s—these men came home and just went on with their lives. They became husbands and fathers and went back to their jobs. And everything that they did after the war, every decision that they made, was impacted by the war. And so I look at them and say, You can live a great life and not have to be patted on the back. They didn’t want that. I think they came back with survivor’s guilt that they survived, and their best friend Joe didn’t. So they lived the rest of their lives in honor of the men who didn’t come back. And they held up some pretty high standards.”
