Jack W. Murray

HOULTON – Jack W. Murray, 71, died July 28, 2024, at his home.

He was born in Portland on Aug. 15, 1952, the son of Bryce M. and Eleanor (Emery) Murray of Cape Elizabeth.

Jack attended Cape Elizabeth schools, graduating in 1970. He worked through a more traditional apprenticeship than is normal today, having been taken along to work in the family construction business by his father starting at 8 years old, and learning to operate machinery starting at 12 years old. He was hired on in the railroad shop at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport at 14 years old, working there under mechanical and electrical engineers Ernest and Thomas Brigham, while also attending school. After high school he attended the Southern Maine Vocational Technical Institute, graduating in 1972 with an AAS in Electrical Technology, and worked in the greater Portland area as an industrial electrician for Fairchild Semiconductor, Kidder Press, and Stauffer Chemical.

By mid-1978, he had enough time in trade and qualified for his Maine Master Electrician license and for the next 15 years he worked for two Portland mechanical contractors, Peerless Welding and its subsidiary The Savage Co., and Holden Refrigeration and its sister company Tidewater Petroleum, working primarily in bulk oil storage plants and industrial boiler rooms. He worked jobs from Madawaska, all the way to Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio and Norfolk, Va. Jack was always fascinated with heavy industry and his travel for work allowed him to see mountain railroading at Crawford Notch (New Hampshire), Horseshoe Curve (Pennsylvania), Sand Patch Grade (Maryland), and White Pass (Alaska/Yukon Territory), trains being sorted at Conway Yard (Pennsylvania), coal ships loading at Lambert’s Point (Virginia), Marion Electric draglines mining coal at Reading Anthracite mines (Pennsylvania), and many other equally memorable sites. As well, he was able to arrange his work schedule a half dozen years to attend Bike Week at Daytona (Florida).

When Tidewater Petroleum closed its doors in 1992, he quit travelling for work and bought a small farm in New Sharon with his sister Susan, where they farmed and raised Chinook sled dogs. The farm was sold after Jack suffered a stroke in early 2007. After his recovery he met and married Isa Boucher, who was at that time caring for 100 sled dogs in a kennel at Grizzly Valley Yukon Territory, Canada, they settled in a one room log cabin on 17 acres of bush, 30 miles north of Whitehorse, Canada, after having been nominated for permanent residence in Canada by the Yukon Territorial Government in exchange for him committing to stay in the Territory to work in the construction trades. In 2014 he retired back east to Cloverdale, New Brunswick. When the international border reopened in 2022, he relocated back to the U.S., settling in Houlton, where he kept company with his dog, tinkered with his collector cars, and had lunch with his New Brunswick friends every month.

Jack was predeceased by both parents; and his wife, Isa in 2013.

He is survived by sisters Marilyn (Kris) Kristiansen of Cape Elizabeth, Jill Tosto of Falmouth, and Susan (Jeffrey) Bragg of Rossburn, Manitoba, Canada; as well as his niece, Marion (Brad) Dausses and her family of Saco.

Burial will be at Seaside Cemetery, Cape Elizabeth, where Jack will lie at rest with about two and a half centuries of family, and within sight of the farm where his Peabbles family ancestors settled when they came to the area in the 1770s.