Bernie Murray – By Jack Coll

Bernie Murray

We’re All Gonna Die,

But Damn, Can we Just slow it Down a Bit

It’s been a tough year on Conshohocken, residents and community leaders seem to be lining up at heaven’s gate talking to St. Pete about admission. Billy Donovan, Bob O’Neill, Billy Freas, and now Bernie Murray.

The news of Bernie’s death spread through the borough like wildfire on a Saturday morning and the only response I had was “Damn.”

It’s funny what you think about when you get the news about someone you know who had just passed away. It seemed to me that every time I approached Bernie for something, he would always say, “Hey Jack, let me ask you something,” and at some-point during our conversation Bernie would say, “Listen, let me explain something to you.” I kinda looked forward to our conversations because Bernie had a way of disagreeing with a person, one hundred percent. He would listen to me talk, and say, “Let me explain something to you” in a soft voice, looking me in the eye, and pulling no punches and explain to me how to go about something I hadn’t even thought about, and that was the beauty of Bernie Murray.

Some years ago Bernie was quite active in the Conshohocken Ambucs organization, active in a quiet way, always looking and waiting for his part to come along, and when it did it was classic Bernie, “What do you need,” and then deliver on whatever it was that was needed. Bernie was an Ambucs official back in the early 1980’s when members of the Ambucs built the Conshohocken Little League concession stand helping them to raise some much needed funds to help provide equipment, one year Bernie purchased the Little League trophies when no funds for trophies were available.

A few years back members of the Conshohocken Golden bears Cheerleading squad got an invite to participate in a cheerleading competition in Florida. These kids had no way of knowing how to raise the money that would take some of them on the trip of their life. When a few of the coaches approached me to help raise the thousands of dollars needed I knew they needed help and approached Bernie about helping out a little bit. At that time Murray Dodge had a number of what looked like mini motorcycles in front of their dealership on Ridge Pike and I inquired about purchasing one of them at cost and raffling it off to help raise funds. There was no charge for the bike, Bernie had it delivered to Conshohocken for a number of activities and sure enough the mini-motorcycle raffle raised enough money to fund a good portion of their trip, a trip all of them will never forget, some may never know what got them to Florida, it was Bernie Murray.

What Bernie did for the Golden Bears Youth Football organization was a whole other story. The Bears went through some tough years in the 1970’s and 1980’s and Bernie and Murray Dodge helped keep the organization going. The general public rarely knows about most good deeds performed by good people, and Bernie was one of those good people.

When the Conshohocken Football Steelers reformed a semi-professional football team back in the 1990’s, Bernie became the general manager and helped finance the organization that went on to win a number of championships.

Bernie was all about Conshohocken, he was all about his family, he helped people one-on-one, a rare quality in a person today, and over the years he helped more residents than I care to count during their struggles with purchasing or repairing their automobiles.

Business owners and community matriarchs that go out of their way to help a community are very hard to come by in today’s society, it’s hard to express how one loves a community, and it’s twice as hard to express how a community loves one person until that person is gone.

So today, Bernie Murray stands outside heaven’s gate, and I see him having a conversation with St. Peter, and Bernie saying to St. Pete, “Let me ask you something,” he’ll continue his good deeds in heaven, someone will need a little help

Bernie was kind with his words and generous with his resources, he was 63 years old.

All I can think of is “Damn Bernie,” where does the time go?

Bernie was a great friend of Conshohocken!