Professor, 79, left thank-you notes

Lawrence Gray, a retired professor, has great taste, immaculate manners, glittering social connections — and sticky fingers, authorities allege.

The 79-year-old is accused of making off with at least $1 million of jewels and art from homes in five states, some where he had been invited to weddings or fundraisers.

At some he even left an elegant thank-you note.

Appearing in a Manhattan court Tuesday, he was the model of a liberal arts professorial, in blazer, button-down and leaning on a cane.

But according to prosecutors and previous civil claims, Gray is really the model of a clever thief who first targeted his lover – and then her affluent friends.

In 2004, the professor of political science at John Cabot University in Rome was in Washington D.C. when he met Jacqueline Quillen, a granddaughter of Alfred Lee Loomis, an investment banker and one of the 20th century’s most accomplished physicists, and a divorcee.

Quillen took trips to Italy while he would stay at the mother-of-three’s home in East Hampton, New York. For a decade, the pair kept largely separate homes but shared a busy social life.

Quillen, who ran the wine department of Christie’s, hosted dinner parties at her home in Washington’s tony Georgetown, where Gray would stay with her when not in Rome.

But what she did not know was that Gray was, allegedly, stealing from her and from her friends. He even took the 1920s Steuben martini glasses she had been gifted by Lomis, her son Quillen alleged in a civil suit.

Gray, who surrendered to authorities Tuesday, has now been accused in Manhattan of stealing at least seven pieces of high-end jewelry and selling them through a New York auction house between 2016 and 2018, earning in excess of $45,000.

The pieces include a Verdura platinum, diamond and sapphire brooch that sold for $22,500, as well as $13,000 Buccellati pendant earrings and a $7,500 Buccellati brooch.

Gray is also facing a felony larceny charge in Rhode Island, where he allegedly stole a $32,000 Verdura platinum, diamond and sapphire brooch from the Newport home of Nannette and George Herrick, a former US diplomat, during a wedding reception.

Authorities say Gray struck in May 2016 while staying with Quillen at the Herricks as they hosted the reception for friends.

“After the reception, Gray placed the brooch in the drawer of a table,” police said in court documents. “When Herrick returned to the drawer two days later, the brooch was missing.”

Five years later, in May 2021, Nannette Herrick told police a family friend had spotted her “one-of-a-kind” piece on the website of Doyle Auction House in Manhattan, where Gray consigned the brooch in August 2016.

It sold months later, with Gray receiving $19,871, according to Newport County Superior Court documents.

Gray’s signature in a guest book at the wedding reception matched the consignment agreement with Doyle for the brooch, which was made by Verdura Fine Jewelry for Herrick’s father in 1970.

“Looking forward to a repeat,” he wrote.

From 2015 through 2020, Gray was a regular at Doyle, consigning roughly 25 jewelry and art items during that span, Newport authorities allege.

“There are similar open cases and ongoing law enforcement investigations in other jurisdictions, including the District of Columbia and Virginia, involving Lawrence Gray as the suspect,” Newport police said in 2021 affidavit. The total value of his alleged haul between the cases is above $1 million.

Gray, who pleaded not guilty in November 2021, is due to appear in a Providence courtroom on Sept. 7.

The criminal cases come after Quillen’s son Parker, 59, sued Gray, claiming that his mother tried to throw Gray out in June 2020 when she discovered her lover had stolen a valuable brooch from her.

Months later, in October 2020, Quillen died of heart failure. She was 77.

The lawsuit, which was settled last August, accused Gray of stealing a hoard of valuables from Quillen, including a $17,000 diamond ring, a $10,000 Patek Philippe watch and $4,700 diamond earrings.

Terms of the settlement were confidential, but Gray made a payment to Quillen’s estate, a source close to the matter told The Post.

The former professor moved out of her home in January 2022, long after relatives sought to have him removed for allegedly squatting. It later sold for $1.975 million.

Shortly after his mother died, Parker saw the martini glasses inside an antique store in Georgetown, L’Enfant Gallery, where Gray regularly sold items, according to court documents.

Quillen said he paid a few hundred dollars to get back the glasses once owned by Loomis, his great-grandfather.

The shop owner sold them back to Quillen at cost, he told The Post Thursday.

“They’re a part of my family heritage and one of the few things I could trace directly back to Alfred [Loomis]. I use them,” Quillen said, who keeps the glasses in East Hampton.

Gray, who lives in Washington and is twice divorced with children from his second marriage, retired from teaching full-time in 2011. He continued to teach as an adjunct at John Cabot until 2014, vice president of academics Mary Merva told The Post.

The former professor’s Washington-based attorney claimed he did not steal from, or defraud, anyone and that his Quillen’s family were persecuting him but that he would be vindicated.

“The New York District Attorney’s Office has overstepped its jurisdictional bounds by bringing this baseless case,” attorney Christopher Zampogna told The Post.

“This indictment is merely a continuation of the hostilities against Mr. Gray, a 79-year-old retired professor, by his late partner’s family due to their disapproval of their relationship. We are confident that, once the facts are heard, Mr. Gray will be vindicated.”

Gray is set to return to a Manhattan courtroom on Oct. 31 after pleading not guilty to felony counts of scheme to defraud, criminal possession of stolen property and grand larceny.