Captain Robert Gray (1755 - 1806) is best remembered for two things, the first circumnavigation of the globe by an American (1790), and his entry into and naming of the Columbia River (1792). It seems there is no biography of Gray, rather a large quantity of written notes about his voyages so I have chosen to include the following article from Oregon.com about him as being the most concise I have found. I have added a few words here and there to 'fill in the details' taken from a variety of other sources.
The full article may be found here: Oregon History
Robert Gray was born in Tiverton, Rhode Island on May 10, 1755 to William M. Gray and Elizabeth, William being descended from Edward Gray of England and Mayflower passenger Mary Winslow.
He served in the Continental Navy during the Revolutionary War and later worked for a Massachusetts trading company. In 1787 Captain Gray and Captain John Kendrick were sent out by their backers from Boston with a cargo of buttons, beads, blue cloth, blankets, iron bars and other items in the ships Lady Washington and Columbia Rediviva.
Arriving on the Oregon coast 10 months later after rounding 'The Horn', they bargained with the natives for the pelts of sea otters. Sailing on to the Orient, they sold pelts and bought tea and possibly silk and spices. To complete the voyage, they sailed west to Boston, making Gray the first American merchant sailor to circumnavigate the globe on August 9th, 1790.
Gray's most notable achievement came on his second voyage to the Oregon coast in 1792. He noted a flow of muddy water fanning from the shore and decided to explore his belief that it was the "Great River of the West." On May 11, 1792, he sent a pinnace ahead to sound the treacherous sand bar and be guided by its crew. Upon entering the river he named it after his ship, the "Columbia Rediviva." After a week or so of trading with the Indians, Gray left without investigating where the river led. Instead, he once again circumnavigated the globe. After his return to Boston in July 1793, he married Martha Atkins and settled down having four daughters and a son, Robert Don Quadra, who died in childhood. He spent the remainder of his career commanding merchant vessels along the Atlantic Coast and died in 1806, possibly of Yellow Fever, and was buried at sea.
Gray's discovery of the Columbia River gave the United States a strong claim to the Oregon Country. It encouraged other American fur traders, who used the Columbia River as a winter haven. By the end of the century these traders controlled the sea otter trade and the presence of the United States was firmly established in the Pacific Northwest, a presence on which the United States would later base its claim to possession.
The statue of Gray is outside the Garibaldi Maritime Museum which has been set up to preserve the maritime heritage of the Pacific Northwest by collecting information concerning Captain Robert Gray and Captain Robert Gray's historical vessels, the Lady Washington and the Columbia Rediviva. It is of cast bronze, slightly less than life size and placed on a bronze and concrete plinth. Gray wears a tricorn hat, a typical C18th long seaman's coat, leather leggings and shoes, and holds a telescope in his left hand. His left eye has a patch over it. (I have, however, found no reference to him loosing an eye).