MURRAY

Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Friday, August 08, 2008 at 05:25:13 :

Independent Journal
Wednesday, December 15, 1976
Page 4

JUDD MURRAY

The ashes of Judd Murray, a commercial fisherman of Sausalito and Kodiak, Alaska, will be scattered on the ocean which was his livelihood for the past 10 years.

Murray, who ran away to sea at age 16 before becoming a policeman, advertising agency owner and fisherman, died Thursday at a local hospital after a short illness. He was 57.

He was born in Vancouver, B.C., and grew up in the Canadian wilds at lumber camps which his father ran. He developed a love for fishing at an early age when, while living on a houseboat on a remote lake, he would open a trap door in the deck of his cabin and fish from his bed.

At 16 he left home to work as a deckhand on freighters traveling to the Orient, then returned two years later to enroll in the University of Washington in Seattle.

After working as a policeman in Seattle for a few years, Murray moved to the Bay Area and founded an advertising agency in San Francisco. He moved to Sausalito some 10 years ago, living at 203 Valley Drive, and also maintaining a home in Kodiak, Alaska.

He began fishing for crab in the Bering Sea and off the Aleutian Islands and survived so many sinkings and groundings that he was nicknamed “Mayday Murray” by the Coast Guard.

Murray was a large, white-bearded man with a sharp mind and keen sense of humor. For recreation he liked to ski and climb mountains.

Survivors include two sons, Patrick Murray of Seattle and Stephen Murray of Saudi Arabia.

A private memorial service will be held Sunday.