The New Hampshire

Issue date: 1/23/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Courtesy Photo Professor Donald Murray passed away on Dec. 30, 2006.

In his book Writing to Deadline: The Journalist at Work, Donald Morrison Murray was interviewed by Mary Sit, a business writer with The Houston Chronicle, and was asked what he learned from working at The Boston Globe.

He replied, "I learned that we all tell stories at the Globe. Don't just throw a bunch of facts at the reader - tell it in a compelling, dramatic fashion."

On Dec. 30, Murray, 82, died of heart failure while visiting a friend in Durham. At that time, he was in the process of unveiling a website where young and hopeful writers could apprentice to him.

Murray started the University of New Hampshire Journalism Program in 1963, giving it the reputation it has today, as well as the classroom in Hamilton Smith under his name where future journalists work and thrive.

According to Lisa Miller, journalism professor, if there's one thing that stands out about Don Murray it is how he worked with students.

"Don didn't treat students as though they were students," said Miller. "He treated them as colleagues."

She said that this attitude he gave had students coming away thinking they could be writers and journalists and that he didn't see himself as a great guru.

"He loved teaching," she said. " And at the end of class he'd give out his home number. His door was open to any student."

Murray was born in Boston in 1924 and grew up in Quincy. He had no siblings, stating an unhappy childhood where his parents and teachers described him as "stupid." However, he used personal encouragement to overcome criticisms.

In Chapter One of Writing to Deadline, Murray said that as a child he was driven by a continuous, hungry curiosity. As an only child, he lived with his grandmother, uncle, mother and father (in order of power and availability).

In it he writes, "We were told to love thy neighbor as thyself and to hate the Irish Catholics who were most of our neighbors. I was told never to lie and then assigned to tell the landlord that my father was sick when he wasn't so we could avoid paying the rent. When I asked questions, the answers didn't clarify but increased the confusion. I became an investigative reporter before I knew the term."

Murray served as a paratrooper in World War II and graduated from UNH in 1948. He is a Pulitzer Prize winner, as well as an author of dozens of books and a master teacher of writing.

For over 20 years he wrote a weekly Boston Globe column called "Over Sixty" and was changed in 2001 to "Now and Then" because he inspired readers not just of the elderly, but also the young. He crafted his columns to depict a narrative of his passing years, which was loyally followed by his readers.

Jack Driscoll, former editor of the Globe and friend of Don, writes on his friend's remembrance, "He was a magnificent writer. No, he was a magnificent teacher. Indeed, his writing was teaching."

Miller said that Murray will be remembered at UNH for saying that everyone has a story and that one can find a story in almost everything. She said he also told his students that he didn't think a good writer came from magic, and that a writer never has writer's block.

A public memorial service will be held Saturday, Jan. 27 at 2 p.m. in the Johnson Theatre of the Paul Creative Arts Center, with a reception following in the art gallery.

In lieu of flowers, family members request that donations be made to the Don Murray Endowed Journalism Fund, which will support the UNH journalism program. You may mail a check to the UNH Foundation, 9 Edgewood Road, Durham, NH 03824; or contact Jennifer Higgins-Pitreat the Foundation. All information can be found at
www.unh.edu/journalism.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools