Gary was born in McCaskill, Arkansas (near Hope in Hempstead County) and grew up in Pine Bluff, Arkansas where he attended Coleman High School. After graduating from high school with honors he attended AM&N College (now University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff) on academic scholarships and Work-Study.  He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and graduated with honors in 1969. Upon graduation he was recruited by several corporations, but accepted a position with International Business Machines (IBM) in Endicott, New York as an entry-level software engineer. After about eighteen months in Endicott he went on a temporary assignment to the Netherlands and returned from the temporary assignment to the IBM Development Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. He spent seven years at Boulder where he held several technical and management positions. In 1979 Gary transferred to the IBM Office Products Division in Austin, Texas where he worked on advanced office products and received several patents. (Many of his patents relate to techniques that are being used in this word processor to input this text.)

Gary worked many years on the Unix operating system codifying standards and developing the architecture for internationalization and globalization. Gary was the first chairperson of the Joint Organization for Internationalization Group that was the combined efforts of the Uniforum and X/Open Internationalization organizations. He retired from IBM in Austin, Texas in 2004 after approximately 33 years with IBM. He now spends most of his time engaged in hobbies and church and community volunteer work.

Gary is a member of Victory Baptist Church in Cedar Park, Texas where he is involved in Sunday School, Bible Study, and several outreach programs. He has served as a deacon, trustee, church treasurer, Sunday School teacher and various other positions within the church.

Gary is married to Dorothy Joshua of Hope, Arkansas who is a 1970 graduate of UAPB.  Gary and Dorothy live in Leander, Texas (northwest of Austin). They have four children (Erin, David, Shana, and Samuel) and four grandchildren (Makayla, Maliah, Malachi, and Mavryck).