MURRAY WINN WILLIAMS

Murray Winn Williams was born in Washington, DC, the second son of Dr. and Mrs. Clem Williams. He went on to become an Eagle Scout and a champion of family, country, and God.

At Woodrow Wilson High School, Murray was elected student council president and vice president of the senior class, and was appointed colonel of the school cadet corps regiment. On the city's student government day, he served as chairman of the city council. He received the Washington Rotary Club citizenship award and split the Harvard Club of Washington's annual scholarship with his Harvard roommate-to-be and Battle of the Bulge fatality, Bob Gifford. In preparation for USMA, he also attended Sully's and Columbia Prep during high school.

Entering the Army in December 1943, he reported for basic combat training at Ft. Benning, GA, the first of five tours there. Then he went to Camp Livingstone, LA, as a 60-millimeter mortar gunner; then to Amherst, MA, to the USMA prep school there. His time in Amherst marked the beginning of a lifelong courtship of Beth Greiner, who was attending Mt. Holyoke College ten miles south across the mountain.

At the Academy, Murray's roommates in A-1 Company included Jack Forrest, Joe Toomey, Sam Coursen, Jim Scholtz, Les Harris, Bob Nelson, Tom Byrd, Loren Patterson, and Amos Mathews. Murray was elected the company's honor committee representative and duty committee representative because, he claimed, he had the most to learn in these two areas. He played Winston Churchill in the 100th Nite Show, noting that if the British Empire should last a thousand years, never again would so much be owed to so few as is owed to the brave Royal Air Force in halting the Nazi attack in the Battle of Britain. Murray also was company press representative and a member of the camera, Russian, ski, and sailing clubs, and coached the plebe lacrosse team.

Graduation leave was spent getting jump qualified and touring Europe with Jack Forrest and other classmates during the Berlin blockade, flying in on the round-the-clock airlift to save West Berlin.

Assignments followed with the I Ith Airborne Division at Ft. Campbell, KY, and with the 2d Infantry Division, Korea, where he grew to admire Hayes Metzger's bravery and leadership in attacking and holding Old Baldy. He then returned to Ft. Benning to teach in the weapons department, attend Ranger School, and serve as S-3 of the 1st of the 7th Infantry in the 3rd Infantry Division. Command and General Staff College at Ft Leavenworth, KS, came next, followed by time at Georgetown University, where he attained a master's degree in international politics. His schooling was excellent preparation for the following assignment with Army General Staff strategic plans and policy in the Pentagon.

Murray commanded 2d Battalion, 509th Airborne Infantry Regiment (Mechanized), 8th Infantry Division, in West Germany and then commanded the Seventh Army NCO Academy in Bad Tolz before attending the Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, PA. He next served a tour with the National Emergency Airborne Command Post at Andrews Air Force Base, MD, and then with the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Viet Nam and the Military Assitance Command, Viet Nam. He then served with the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel in the Pentagon, where he was deputy to classmate Collier Ross. Murray's final four years of active duty were spent at Missouri's Truman State University, where he retired after 31 years of active duty.

In his 24 years of civilian life, before being called home to the Supreme Commander, Murray spent 13 of those years with the St. Joseph school district as the director of the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps in the three public high schools, and eleven years were dedicated to volunteer work. Especially fulfilling were tutoring in the local schools, packing lunches for Meals on Wheels, serving on the local Red Cross board, partaking in the Rotary service club, furthering the Brookdale Presbyterian Church mission, teaching middle school Sunday School classes, building for Habitat for Humanity, and going on mission trips to Russia, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and southern Missouri. During his retirement, Murray enjoyed family reunions at the cabin Beth's dad built in 1965 in Sweden, ME, on a mile-long lake called Keyes Pond, with many of the four children and seven grandchildren in attendance. He also enjoyed sailing, canoeing, fishing, kayaking, swimming, mountain climbing, and rappelling. His last class activity was the marvelous San Antonio reunion held in 2003.

Murray is survived by Beth, his bride of 54 years; four children: Murray Jr. '73 (a retired colonel), John (a general surgeon), Linda Seeling, and Robert (a high school science teacher); and seven grandchildren.

Murrays dedication to family, country, and God has been contagious. May it be said, "Well done, be thou at peace."

His family

TAPS SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2004

Personal Eulogy