Marvin Berdan Grey, the fifth son of a family of nine children was born June 12, 1889, on his father’s farm at Sand Lake, Lenawee County, Michigan. At the age of four years, his father, Alfred Grey, and mother, Ancy Rose Grey, moved with the family to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where they resided until the death of Mrs. Grey, May 9, 1919. The boy, Marvin, grew to be healthy and strong with the love of the out-of-doors in his heart. He excelled in athletics at the Ann Arbor High School and attained local fame as a football player, starring on the famous team of 1910 which, had it not been for objections of the principal of the school, would have accepted an offer of a tour to the Pacific Coast. While in high school he became a member of the National Guard at Ann Arbor and was soon promoted to the rank of Sergeant.

He was an ardent fisherman, hunter and horseman. His fondness of horses finally took him westward in 1911 where he became a skillful rider, riding the range of Phillip’s Ranch at Fort Pierre, South Dakota. Longing for a ranch of his own, he left Dakota, and filed on a Government claim among the hills about thirty miles from the little town of Gates, Oregon, where he built a rough log cabin, and struggled alone for an existence during many months of hardships. About this time, his mother, failing in health, left Ann Arbor, to live for a short time with her daughter, Mrs. R. O. Taylor, in Caliente, Nevada. Upon hearing of this, not having seen her for four years, he left his little homestead in the wilderness for Caliente, Nevada, accepting the position of Freight Cashier for the Salt Lake Route soon after his arrival. Being a promoter of good clean, healthy sports, he entered immediately into the social life of Caliente, making many friends as he always did everywhere.

He was a man with the highest of ideals and when our country was plunged into war, he felt it his duty to enlist. He bade farewell to Caliente, July 1917, applying at once to the old company at Ann Arbor where he was accepted with the rank the formerly held as Sergeant. He served in France in the Alsace-Lorraine Sector, May 21-July 19, 1918; was recommended to the Army Candidate School, A. E. F., in August 1918; and returned to his company October 8th. He entered the Meuse Argonne Offensive the next day, October 9, 1918, south of Romagne-sous-Montfaucon. On that day as he was leading a platoon of men in a raid on a German machine gun nest, a shell exploded in front of him. His men fell to the ground but when they arose to continue the charge Sergeant Grey was nowhere in sight nor was he ever found. He is survived by his father who resides at 138 Chapin Street, Jackson, Michigan, four sisters, Mrs. W. B. Smith, 138 Chapin Street, Jackson, Michigan; Mrs. William Durand, Marshal, Michigan; Mrs. Chas. Searles, 13 West Gibson Street, Canandaigna, New York; Mrs. R. O. Taylor, 1373 Coplin Avenue, Detroit, Michigan; and four brothers, Allison Grey, 3017 West Grand Boulevard, Detroit, Michigan; Alfred Grey, 1125 West 2nd Street, Los Angeles, California; Harlow Grey, Marshall, Michigan, Thurlow Grey, 814 West 60th Street, Los Angeles, California.