 My granduncle, John Gray, was town clerk of Ayr and secretary of the great Burns Festival of 1844, when 80,000 good people gathered in a field beside the cottage to honor the name of Ayr's most noted son.In 1903–1904 he was president of Columbia College, in Milton, Oregon.He was professor of English literature at the University of Southern California from 1905 to 1911, when he was transferred to the chair of Oriental studies and comparative literature.