Ivor Thord-Gray
Ivor Thord-Gray, born Thord Ivar Hallström on April 17, 1878, in Södermalm, Stockholm, Sweden, was a sailor, soldier, ethnologist, linguist, investor, writer, prison guard, and government official. He fought in thirteen wars across Africa, Asia, North America, and Europe.
He was the second son of August Hallström and Hilda, with brothers Gunnar (an artist) and Gustaf (an archaeologist). In 1923 he returned to Sweden and wrote Från Mexicos forntid: bland tempelruiner och gudabilder (From Mexico's ancient times: among temple ruins and idols). In 1925 he moved to the United States and started I.T. Gray & Co, an investment bank in New York City. He became a U.S. citizen in 1934.
Thord-Gray married Josephine Toerge-Schaefer (1925–1932) and they had two children, Edward and Frances. He later married Winnifred Ingersoll (1933–1960). In 1929 he lived at Gray Court in Belle Haven, Greenwich, Connecticut, and in August 1935 he was appointed Major-General and Chief-of-Staff to Florida Governor David Sholtz.
He published Tarahumara-English, English-Tarahumara dictionary and an introduction to Tarahumara grammar (1955) and Gringo Rebel: Mexico 1913–1914 (1961), a book about his experiences in the Mexican Revolution. He spent his later years in Coral Gables, Florida, where he had a winter home, and he died on August 18, 1964, at the age of 86.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 22:33 (CET).