Gray, Robert 1955-

PERSONAL:

Born 1955. Hobbies and other interests: Racing automobiles and travel.

ADDRESSES:

Home—NY and VT.

CAREER:

Crane operator.

MEMBER:

International Union of Operating Engineers.

WRITINGS:

(With Glenn Stout and Charles Vitchers) Nine Months at Ground Zero: The Story of the Brotherhood of Workers Who Took on a Job Like No Other, Scribner (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Robert Gray and Charles Vitchers are two of the many workers who were contracted by the management firms hired by the New York City Department of Design and Construction following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center to assist in recovering the dead and clearing the debris from the site. Gray, who had worked in construction for more than twenty years, served as a crane operator, while Vitchers, a thirty-year veteran of the business, served as a construction superintendent. With the assistance of writer Glenn Stout, Gray and Vitchers have written an account of their experiences during the nine months they worked at Ground Zero. Nine Months at Ground Zero: The Story of the Brotherhood of Workers Who Took on a Job Like No Other takes a hard look at the tension inherent in such a situation, including the disagreements between construction crews and the members of the fire and police departments, the latter of whom gave priority to the recovery of the bodies of their colleagues. They also criticize the Department of Design and Construction, whose main focus was to clear the area quickly and for the least possible amount of money. In a review for Publishers Weekly, contributor David Siegfried wrote: "We can begin to get a sense of what the men and women went through who dealt with the tragedy firsthand."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Gray, Robert, Glenn Stout, and Charles Vitchers, Nine Months at Ground Zero: The Story of the Brotherhood of Workers Who Took on a Job Like No Other, Scribner (New York, NY), 2006.

PERIODICALS

Publishers Weekly, March 6, 2006, David Siegfried, review of Nine Months at Ground Zero, p. 63.

ONLINE

Simon and Schuster Web site,http://www.simonsays.com/ (November 20, 2006), author biography.*