William Murray Obituary

My earliest memory of Bill Murray was in December, 1990. It was soon after he joined our Board of Trustees and became its Chairman that he threw a Christmas party for Marymount Manhattan’s employees after he found out the College could not afford to give us one. (That’s when we learned Bill loved a good party!)

My happiest memory of Bill is when MMC threw a grand party for him: it was in 2002 and featured Southern belles, mint juleps and a musical tribute to Bill that was written by some of our faculty. This celebration honored Bill and thanked him for the many contributions he made to MMC during the 12 years he served as our Chairman - and welcomed Bill to his new position, Trustee Emeritus.

It was Bill’s special and rare combination of humanity and generosity, his interest and involvement in so many professions: education, legal, medical, the sciences, architecture and design, just to name a few – not to mention his love of a good party – that I’ll always remember with great admiration and fondness. All of this and Bill’s many, many contributions to this College and the people in it, past and present, will be part of his legacy, and will endure.

For all of this and so much more, I cannot thank Bill Murray enough.

To have experienced the friendship of Bill Murray was to have known one of America's true philanthropists and Bon Vivants. He will be missed by me, my husband Selig Alkon, and by many, many more.

Bill Murray has been an enormously influential person in my life and in the lives of many of my colleagues and students at the University of South Carolina and in Ukraine. His generosity and support seeded significant new studies and collaborations related to the environmental impacts of the Chernobyl disaster and this developing body of work is likely to have a lasting impact on the way humankind responds to environmental disasters in the future. Thank you, Bill.

Tim Mousseau
Professor of Biological Sciences
University of South Carolina

I am very saddened to learn of the passing of Mr. Murray. I came to know him through his support of international students. He generously helped students from around the world attend and graduate from Marymount Manhattan College. Through them his good work will continue.

I never had the great pleasure of meeting Mr. Murray, but his generosity and compassionate vision touched me through his support of The Samuel Freeman Education Incentive at Marymount Manhattan College. The awards I received via the incentive fostered the completion of a Master of Fine Arts degree from Goddard College and my subsequent appointment as Associate Professor of Dance at MMC. For this, I am truly grateful.

Please accept my sincere expression of sympathy.

I am so sorry to learn of the passing of Bill. I had the pleasure and honor of serving with Bill on the Board of the Spaulding Paolozzi Foundation. He will be missed. My thoughts and prayers are with his family at this time.

Lester S. Schwartz

What a great man. He generously supported USC activities in Chernobyl, much of which continues. We will all miss him and thank him for his contributions to research and education in South Carolina. Thank you Bill. We are thinking of you Helen.

Bruce Coull, Dean Emeritus, School of the Environment, Univ. of South Carolina

Bill was a very special man, a good man, and a man I both respected and was fond of. Please accept my deepest sympathies.

Dear Family and Loved Ones of Mr. Murray,
I first met Mr. Murray in the 1990's at Marymount Manhattan College and have known and respected him ever since.
He has been a treasured friend to MMC and will be sorely missed. He was such a fine and wonderful man.
Lovingly,
Diana Nash

Our thoughts and prayers are with you in your time of grief. May your memories bring you comfort.