Stuart Grant Murray

1922 - 2022

Hudson, Ohio - Stuart Grant Murray, 99, passed away in Hudson, Ohio, Jan. 17, 2022. Murray spent the first 46 years of his life on the go, first as a child of a U.S. Naval officer, and then for 27 years as a Naval officer himself.

It wasn't until 1968, when he and his wife, Sarah, moved their family to Gales Ferry, that either one of them had lived in one place for more than three years.

Gales Ferry was their home for 40 years. Murray was active in the Ledyard community serving on the Youth Services Board, was elected several times to the Ledyard Board of Education in the 1980s, was an active member of the Ledyard Republican Town Committee and managed an H&R Block office in Gales Ferry until he was 85.

The 1970s were a busy time for the Murrays as they had four sons that played football and wrestled at Ledyard High School, two who were undefeated State Open wrestling champions. Stuart and Sarah Murray never missed a game or a match.

After their sons moved out, the Murrays provided a safe house for 21 at risk youth, some staying with them for more than a year.

Murray was born May 12, 1922, in Los Angeles, Calif. He was the eldest child of Admiral Stuart Shadrick Murray (USN) and Madeleine Young Murray, and as a member of a Naval family his childhood was on the go. His first steps were taken on Waikiki Beach in Hawaii and in his formative years he lived in Santa Barbara, Calif., Portsmouth, N.H., New London, Conn., and Coronado, Calif.

Murray joined the Naval Reserves at 17 years of age and went through flight training school before the age of 20. Murray graduated with an Electrical Engineering degree from the United States Naval Academy, Class of 1947, widely considered one of the most influential classes in academy history (Jimmy Carter, President of United States was a classmate). Murray was the heavyweight boxing champion of his brigade at the Naval Academy.

After graduation he circled the globe on a destroyer and then entered Naval Submarine School in New London in 1948. His first submarine assignment was aboard the USS Becuna, and then he returned to school to work on a master's degree where his final thesis was entitled, "Investigation Of The Output Of Clippers To Gaussian Inputs." The thesis was 60 pages of a formula and he continued to talk in great detail about his work 70 years after it was written.

While in post graduate school in Monterey, Calif., he flew to Honolulu to visit his parents at Christmas. His father was the Commanding Officer of the Pearl Harbor Naval Base, and during his visit he met the girl next door, Sarah Elizabeth Bauernschmidt, the daughter of another Admiral. They fell in love and were married in Honolulu on July 18, 1953.

As children of naval officers, Stuart and Sarah were fully prepared for a life on the move. They had five sons together, and the family moved from Monterey, Calif. to Quaker Hill, to Kittery, Maine, to Arlington, Va., to Coronado, Calif., to Subic Bay, Philippines, back to Coronado, Calif., to Ridgewood, N.J. and to Gales Ferry where he lived for 40 years before moving to Hudson, Ohio in 2008.

Stuart served in the United States Navy for 27 years and retired in 1966 as a Lt. Commander. During his career he was engineer and navigator on the USS Jallao that set out to circumnavigate the world, but the mission changed to go through the Mediterranean Sea, through the Suez Canal, down the eastern coast of Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope, across the Atlantic and up the eastern coast of South America. He was the executive officer of the USS Bang, and in 1958 he was assigned to Office of Naval Research (ONR) where he worked on submarine warfare.

As part of his work at ONR he was project manager of the Trieste dive into the Marianas Trench, the deepest spot on earth. The possibility of being a member of a historic dive seven miles beneath the ocean's surface was derailed by the physical size of his body, which at 6'2", 230 pounds, would have cramped the space inside the deep-sea submersible.

Much of his naval career was focused on submarine warfare and unconventional detection of submarines. After retirement from the navy, he worked for another two decades analyzing submarine warfare for private contractors, Litton, CONRAC and General Electric.

After retiring from GE in 1986 he launched a radon testing company and then became Master Tax Advisor for H&R Block. Sarah died in 2005 and a few years later he moved to Hudson to be near family. Stuart loved food, particularly seafood, and he celebrated his 95th birthday by eating 47 oysters on the half shell with his family and friends watching on.

Stuart was a lifelong Republican and Rotarian, admired John Wayne, loved his country and when asked, he always showed up. He loved playing bridge, buying lottery tickets, and studying the menu at his retirement community. In addition to his extensive collection of aloha shirts, he also loved papaya, avocados, Ben and Jerry's ice cream, and cookies.

Stuart was predeceased by his wife, Sarah, two sons, Robert Edward Murray and Charles Richard Murray, daughter-in-law Cynthia Murray and grandson Steven Margulies. He is survived by three sons, Stuart Grant Murray Jr. of Streetsboro, OH, George William Murray of Hudson, OH, and John Hutchins Murray of Morris, CT. He is also survived by daughter-in-law Judy Murray of Hudson, and six grandchildren: Elizabeth Alison Murray, George William Murray Jr. and his wife Amy, Charlie Murray (all from Hudson), Chelsea Murray Kaneb and her husband Michael of Torrington, CT, and Shari Margulies and Marcy Thomaswick of CT, and great-grandchildren Ethan Thomaswick, Jasen Thomaswick, Zoe Kaneb, Brielle Murray (of Hudson). He is also survived by his younger sister, Suzanne Stroup.

A memorial service for Stuart Grant Murray will be held 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 20, 2022, at Christ Church Episcopal at 21 Aurora Street in Hudson, Ohio.

In lieu of flowers, the family is asking that anyone interested in making a donation, send to the Charles Richard Murray Memorial Scholarship Fund, Ledyard High School, 24 Gallup Hill Road, Ledyard, Ct 06339. Arrangements by Johnson-Romito Funeral Home, Hudson, Ohio.