Marion (Luney) Murray

MURRAY, Marion Isabelle (Luney) 1919 – 2013….

Marion died at home in London, Ontario on March 27, 2013 after a protracted period of home care. She is survived by her husband, Dr. Robert G.E. Murray, but no close family after her sister, Dorothy Luney, died in 1993. They were the sole children of the late Dr. Frederick and Cora (Spettigue) Luney of London, Ontario, and were the fourth generation of Luney’s in London. The family had much to do with the life and early building of the south part of London. There are surviving cousins, Dora McNeil (London ON), Marjory Richards (Middleville MI), Dorothy Lord (San Diego CA), Thomas Fairles (Duck Lake MI), Mary Jane Joyce (Belleville ON), Marilynne McNeil (London ON), Janet Bisset (St Lambert QC), and Grant McNeil (Calgary AB). There are more distant relations distributed in Canada, UK, Spain and New Zealand. She was schooled at London South Collegiate and attended the University of Western Ontario in preparation for her working life as a medical technologist starting in St Joseph’s Hospital Laboratory (where her father was the pathologist), for a time in St Catharines ON and Lansing MI, and finally for some 23 years in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Western Ontario. She was the chief technologist in the Clinical Bacteriology Service for Victoria Hospital (1956-66) which was in the Department. When the Faculty of Medicine moved to the University campus in 1966, she went with it to provide technical support to laboratory teaching for the students of medicine and science. She retired in 1981 to care for her aged parents. Marion enjoyed life with many good friends, a life-long bridge club, and vacations that included wide travels with her parents, sister, and special friends. In 1985 she married Dr. Robert Murray, a widower and departmental colleague for many years, and they lived on happily in London until age overtook her. In the last part of her life there was more traveling with the addition of her husband’s professional international involvements, and consequent widening of the range of friends and acquaintances. In those years she was a quiet and mostly anonymous philanthropist giving generous major support to St Joseph’s and Parkwood Hospitals, the University of Western Ontario including her old department, the Stratford Shakespearean Festival, and the London Community Foundation as well as a number of other charities. The family wishes to express their great appreciation of a decade of housekeeping and final years of loving care by Charalito Sorilla (“Chat”) as well as the friendship of her family. We also owe special thanks to Mary Wellman and Marilyn Weekley of Medical Priorities for caring supervision and to all the caregivers they provided for a long illness. Throughout her adult life Marion was a lively-minded participant in the lives of family and friends, enjoying nature, reading, the arts and music but without being an adventurer or involved in physical sports. It was a life well lived. A memorial service will be held on Wednesday, April 3, 2013 at 2pm at Wesley-Knox United Church, 91 Askin Street, London, with Reverend Tracy Crick-Butler officiating. A private interment in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, London. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to St Joseph’s Healthcare Foundation, 801 Commissioners Road East, London, ON N6C 5J1 or to the charity of your choice. A. Millard George Funeral Home, entrusted with arrangements. Online condolences, memories, and photographs shared at www.amgfh.com