James L, Murray, a retired U.S. Air Force major general who had been chairman of Teledyne CAE and served on the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority and as chairman of the Toledo Area Chamber of Commerce, died May 9 at his home in Point Clear, Ala.
He was 85 and died of congestive heart failure after several years of poor health, including lung cancer, his son Mark said.
General Murray lived in Perrysburg in the 1970s and '80s when he was with Teledyne, a Toledo parts factory for U.S. defense systems that was formerly the Continental Aviation & Engineering Co. He became president of Teledyne in 1969.
He was appointed to the port authority board in 1977 after serving on its airport advisory committee for four years.
He was elected chairman of the chamber of commerce in 1982 and when he was installed said the chamber's priorities were to "document our assets and aggressively market them to the world" to create more jobs. Another goal, he said, was to get a "fair share of government contracts back in the heartland."
Providing jobs in Toledo was what he was most proud of at Teledyne, his son said.
General Murray was born in western North Carolina, the younger of two boys in the family. He graduated from North Carolina State College in aeronautical engineering in 1939 and took a position with the predecessor of NASA in a full-scale wind tunnel at Langley Field in Virginia.
In 1940 he entered the U.S. Army Air Corps as a flying cadet and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1941 as a rated pilot.
During World War II he was a flight instructor in Alabama. Later he was a test pilot in California, flying research planes that led to the modern de-icing system.
"That was a very, very scary thing," his son said of General Murray's 122 missions for de-icing research.
He promoted the jet ejection seat escape system and was an Air Force project manager with the development of the B-52 bomber.
He logged more than 5,500 hours as a pilot in more than 60 types of aircraft. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for outstanding leadership and served as chairman of the Air Force Reserve Forces Policy Committee under the secretary of the Air Force from 1971 to 1975.
Over a period of more than 30 years, General Murray served in executive positions with Garrett Corp. in Los Angeles, Republic Aviation Corp. in Farmingdale, Long Island, Douglas Aircraft, Aero-Commander, as well as Teledyne and its predecessor.
He moved to Point Clear, Ala., in 1985. He enjoyed golf and was an exceptional tennis player, serving as captain of his college team. He was a member of Burning Tree Club in Bethesda, Md., and had been a member of Belmont Country Club.
Surviving are his wife, Phyllis; daughters, Lucy Howell, Marilyn Van Dyke, and Margaret Harcourt; sons, James, Mark, Kenneth, and Brett; nine grandchildren, and a great-grandchild.
He was cremated, and his remains are to be interred in Arlington National Cemetery in October. The family suggests tributes to the U.S. Air Force Falcon Foundation.
First Published May 18, 2004, 10:06 a.m.
