Murray Smith 1944

Murray Smith 1944 died on September 7, 2011. The Vero Beach, Florida, man was eighty-nine.

Murray participated in lacrosse, swimming, and tennis. He worked on the Collegian and on HIKA. A native of England, Murray volunteered for the British Army during World War II, became an officer, and took part in the Allied invasion of Europe with a machine gun company. He was attached to U.S. forces during the Battle of the Bulge. The platoon commanded by Murray liberated a small concentration camp “and so I am quite sensitive to the horrors of genocide,” he said in a note to the College.

Murray enjoyed a career in promotional sales and color design, starting at William L. Marshall, where he was a specialist in the marketing of raw veneers to the furniture industry. He later became an architectural specialist for Parkwood Laminates. He was hired by Westinghouse Electric Corporation, where he entered management. He was active in color marketing groups and became an international authority on color. According to a 1984 news release, Murray was the first person “to promote and develop sales through solicitation of architects and interior designers.” He established Murray Smith Associates, a color-consulting firm.

Murray enjoyed tennis and platform tennis and was a longtime member of the West Side Tennis Club at Forest Hills in New York. He played tennis six days a week well into his seventies. He also enjoyed travel and said he had visited sixty countries.

He accepted in good humor his first obituary in the Alumni Bulletin, published in 1976. “I congratulate you on the accuracy of my obituary, with one exception,” he wrote to the College. “Apparently some classmate caught sight of me and felt I did not look as well as I feel. May I suggest … that for my next obituary you may care to dwell more on my extreme strength of character.”

He was preceded in death by his wife, Mary, after fifty-seven years of marriage. Murray was survived by his daughter, Victoria, and a grandchild.