Palms executive Jon Gray and wife Ruth add baby girl to family
The indication that Jon Gray and wife Ruth were adding to their family was a photo of a little Vegas Golden Knights cheerleader outfit.
Gray, the general manager of the Palms, who is helping direct the resort’s $690 million overhaul and expansion, posted the photo in July, with the message, “So it looks like this is happening #nixonstorm.”
It happened this month. As the holidays arrive, so does a tiny gift. The Grays have welcomed Nixon Storm Gray to their brood. The couple adopted the little girl, their third child after sons Nash Danger, 7, and Knox Thunder, 3.
Some of the Grays’ friends in Las Vegas did not know of these plans until the couple started sharing photos. The process began a couple of years ago, when the Grays were living in Portland, Oregon, after Jon took a high-level position at Nike.
The family moved to Oregon after Jon had forged a successful career as an executive at the Palms in the 2000s and, later, the developmental period of Linq Promenade. The Gray family returned to Las Vegas in March 2017, as Jon took on an exec role at the Palms after it was purchased by Station Casinos.
By then, the couple were already looking to add to their family.
“We had talked about it, for years, and went through the process about two years ago, and it is quite a process,” Jon Gray said in a phone chat Wednesday afternoon. “… There are so many variables in play, we didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up.”
The couple endured extensive and lengthy background checks, home visits, interviews with their children, reviews of their references. Jon spent a day at the sheriff’s department in Portland for the required criminal background check (Gray is only criminally fashion-conscious). The couple’s bios were posted on a closed website, made available to mothers who were seeking fit adoptive parents.
“We were close to becoming foster parents, exploring that because there was seemingly no end in sight,” Gray said. “We ended up not going through the process, but we started it.”
The Grays, as you might have detected, prefer distinctive names. Both liked using the letter “X” in the name, even as Nixon is often a boy’s name and happens to be the name of a president who resigned his post.
Not a problem.
“We thought about that, but at her age people aren’t even going to know who Nixon was,” Gray said, chuckling. “I don’t think she’ll get made fun of in kindergarten because of it.”
Gray said Nixon’s birth elicited the same level of emotions as the arrival of the couple’s two sons.
“You wonder how you’ll feel, as you already have biological children,” Gray said. “It’s no different. She’s my daughter, and I feel that same love. A baby needs you for everything, and you feel that responsibility. It’s the same amount of love.”
Jon and Ruth are certainly a Las Vegas power couple, having met at the Palms and been married there in February 2010 (then-Palms co-owner and Gray’s longtime friend and confidant George Maloof was a groomsman.).
Ruth was the 2013 Mrs. Nevada America pageant winner. The couple are season-ticket holders for the Golden Knights (hence Nixon’s cheerleading outfit), and they attended five road games during last season’s Stanley Cup playoffs.
As Jon said, “This is where we want to grow our family, and we want to raise our family here. We missed Las Vegas when we went away, and we can’t think of a better place to raise a kid.”
Ruth said the Grays now have a full house.
“After having two boys and being the only girl in the house, I’m over the moon to bring our sweet baby Nixon home,” she said. “Our family is now complete.”
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.