Dowdall Murray guided and helped to grow Murray Bros. Lumber Company for many years

Barry’s Bay — Another pioneer of the lumbering business in the Valley has fallen, laying down the burden of life after more than nine decades on this earth.
Dowdall Murray started out in the lowest paying job at his father and uncle’s sawmill at Madawaska at the age of 13, piling slabs, and later rose to become president and CEO of Murray Bros. Lumber Company which today is guided by his three sons: Terry, Ted and Rob.
There are few men left in this industry who would be as knowledgeable on the subject of forestry, lumbering and sawmilling as was Dowdall Sylvester Leo Raymond Murray.
But he was much more than a man who loved, respected and honoured nature and who cultivated the forests with a deep respect and appreciation. He understood the importance of a good balance between harvesting, good management and providing for future generations.
Mr. Murray passed away on Saturday, August 10 at Valley Manor Nursing Home in Barry’s Bay where he had been a resident for the past few years. He was just two weeks shy of his 92nd birthday.
His passing not only represented the loss of a giant in the industry, but he was also the last in a family of nine born to Tom and Hannah (Kiely) Murray. He was predeceased by brothers Casey, Michael James (M.J.) and Daniel, all who were part of the family business at one time, Father Joe Murray, OMI, and sisters: Olive Duffy, Teresita Conway, Inez MacGillis and Mary Bernardi.
His wife of over 60 years, Rita (Leveque) passed away three years ago. He was also predeceased by son, Sean.
Left to mourn his passing are sons Terry (Stephanie), Ted (Liz) and Rob (Tracy) and daughters Mary Lynn and Patty, and 11 grandchildren.
Dowdall Murray lived his life to the fullest and as busy as he was in the business, dealing with hundreds of employees, contractors and customers, and raising his family, he also found the time to enjoy and pursue several other passions and interests.
An avid outdoorsman, he loved fishing and spent much of his retirement fishing at his Rockingham farm. He was a private pilot and in his younger years he would fly over the company’s timber limits and also enjoy the beauty of the Madawaska Valley and area from the air. He was also an avid baseball fan, a sport three generations of his family indulged in and enjoyed.
He loved the Madawaska Valley and would often proclaim there was no better place in the world to live.
“He travelled extensively and when he came back and would get up and fly over the (Madawaska) river from Bark Lake down to Kamaniskeg (lake) and down the Madawaska to Griffith and all through there, he would say there are very few places in the world that are as beautiful as that,” oldest son Terry said.
Murray Bros. Lumber Company was founded in 1902 by brothers Tom and Michael Murray. When the company celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2002, Mr. Murray was 75, still the CEO and although not as active in the business as in his earlier years, was still going to the mill near Madawaska every morning, often being the first person to arrive on site.
“I love to go up to the mill in the morning. You know, all the action, all the activity, it’s just great,” Mr. Murray told the Leader in an interview when the company held a huge celebration in the summer of 2002 marking its centennial. “I don’t know what I would do without it. I’d be completely, totally lost.”
Mr. Murray said then there were times when there were lots of headaches and lots of problems, adding the most important job in any business was to establish a back-up team that could take over and continue.
“Right now I’m coasting. These fellows (his three sons) are doing a helluva job and they are doing it with darn little help from me. I am, as usual, criticizing some, but they are doing a terrific job, just great.”
Mr. Murray attended St. Patrick’s College in Ottawa in the mid-1940s where he won the history medal in his final year of studies. He had a keen interest in world history and was well versed on many subjects, including politics. His late father, Tom, was the Member of Provincial Parliament for Renfrew South from 1929 to 1945 and so politics was often the topic of conversation in the household.
While Mr. Murray could hold his own with anyone when it came to political discussions, it was his common sense approach and solutions to problems of the day that gained him the respect of many. He had little patience for stupidity and a lot less for bureaucrats who didn’t know or understand what they were talking about … especially when it came to forestry. He was fiercely proud of how his company managed the forests over its 100 years and knew the importance of being good stewards of the land.
“If you spend a hundred years and you spend all of your money building sawmills, planing mills and dry kilns, and the thing that you have to have is timber, why would you go out and destroy the very thing you need the most?” he once asked “If you do that then you should be locked up,” he said in the 2002 interview.
After finishing college, Mr. Murray became a log scaler and worked for Abitibi and the Ministry of Natural Resources in the Blind River area until 1947 when he began working as a hardwood lumber scaler at Murray Bros.
In the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, he was in charge of operating the mill while brother M.J. looked after sales. But when M.J. died suddenly in 1976 at the age of 60, he then assumed the responsibility of sales on top of running the mill, which had a work force of about 300 plus all of the jobbers and other sub contractors.
One of his biggest concerns was when the provincial government established the Algonquin Forestry Authority in 1976. He feared for the future of the industry because he didn’t think a government-appointed authority managing the resources of Algonquin Park could work.
But it did work and Mr. Murray said the reason it worked was because the government picked two very capable men for the job.
Son Terry said his dad had a wonderful ability to see the true value of something when a lot of other people wouldn’t put any kind of value on it at all. He was a great believer in buying vacant land and planting the fields in trees.
“My dad was always a huge believer in that you could never have enough land and the land that you had, if you had any vacant fields, get them planted,” he said. “Without your timber resources it doesn’t matter how many sawmills you’ve got, if you haven’t got the wood supply to fuel them you’re going nowhere. He was always very careful on our own lands, our own licences. We didn’t hammer things and we were always purchasing on the open market.”
He said his dad came through the Great Depression and the one thing that was instilled in him was a strong entrepreneurial spirit because a dollar was hard to come by.
“His entrepreneurial spirit came out then because you had to pretty well earn your own money if you were going to have any money. He got into selling frogs and dew worms, picking pine cones. He delved into my grandmother’s stamp collection and found a couple of guys who had some loot who would pay some pretty good money for a rare stamp.”
Terry said his dad had tremendous insight and people would wonder why he would buy a piece of land they saw no value in, but in the end it would sell for 10 times the original purchase price. He said the company is still cutting on properties his father bought back in the 1970s and 80s and while the price paid might have seemed like a lot of money then, the company might not be around today had he not made those purchases.
Loyal Workforce
Several generations of families from the wider Barry’s Bay community have earned their living working for Murray Bros. and Mr. Murray was very proud of the employees and their dedication.
“He knew the families, he knew the history of the families in the area so he could go back three generations and realize what his grandfather had said about your employee’s grandfather and he could pick out the special qualities in each of those families and what they were good at.
“That’s what he showed me,” Terry said. “When I would be looking for a particular person to do a particular job, he’d know from the family that there is a fellow who comes from a long line. And that kind of thing is so invaluable.”
The company also employed many students during the summer months at both the sawmill in Madawaska and the planing mill in Barry’s Bay, helping them with the cost of pursuing college and university educations.
“They’d go out and buy lumber from George Stein, Lennie Rumleskie, all the smaller mills in the area, not necessarily, but hoping to make a profit, so they would have enough lumber so the summer students would have jobs,” he said. “A lot of the workers here wanted a job for their son who was either going to university or high school and they made sure there was enough work coming in that they were able to give 50 or 60 jobs in the summer time.
“I was one of the ones who was benefitting from that but I didn’t realize why it was being done. Those were the kinds of things that went a long way. They put a lot of kids through school and university too.”
Among Ted Murray’s fondest memories of his dad was as youngsters he and his brothers spending time hunting and fishing.
“He never really gave up those interests in life until the very end. He really did enjoy all that the rural Madawaska Valley had to offer.”
Always a man to provide sage advice, Ted remembers one of his dad’s lines was “choose your friends and not your enemies, because they will show inevitably.”
He said his dad always had time for people, adding it didn’t matter what their situation in life was,” he said. “He really did respect people and in a way he really made people feel good because he did have time for them. He was such a great story-teller. He had a great knack for that. He could entertain people. He was really quite an interesting guy.”
Mr. Murray also prepared his sons for the business by having them work at labour-intensive jobs when they were young. Ted recalls in Grade 9 there was a teacher’s strike and he pestered his dad to let him go work at the mill.
“He was reluctant because I still was very young and of slight build and the work up here is quite vigorous. He agreed and his foreman picked me up the next day. I worked piling lumber and it was an eye-opening experience and I was somewhat regretful. I didn’t give up and I endured, and fortunately the teacher’s strike ended about three weeks afterward and I was quite happy to go back to school.”
“It was the same for my brothers too,” he said. “We weren’t fed with the golden spoon. We had to do labour-type jobs and it taught us a lot about what was required in different jobs here and that’s helpful to this day.
Mr. Murray valued the company’s employees and would often say “they don’t work for us, they work with us”. He said one couldn’t find better people than those in and around the Bay area.
A Philanthropist
Murray Bros. and the company’s owners have been major supporters of community projects and activities in the Barry’s Bay area over many decades. Dowdall Murray was a great supporter of his church, health-care needs in the community and sports programs.
“When he saw a good cause, he was right in there,” Terry said.
Company Guided By Third Generation
Today, Murray Bros. continues to produce hardwood and softwood lumber with about 35 per cent of the product being exported to several Asian countries including Vietnam and India. Not that many years ago about 50 per cent of their softwood was sold in the United States but after the Americans began increasing tariffs on imported lumber, Murrays began searching out new markets and today sales to the U.S. account for about three per cent of their overall sales.
Mr. Murray’s sons continue to carry on the business started by their grandfather and great uncle with Terry filling the position of president in charge of softwood sales. Ted and Rob are vice-presidents with Ted responsible for hardwood sales and finances and Rob heads up the technical and mechanical operations, and is in charge of the rolling stock. The company continues to be a major employer with a workforce of 125 on site.
Gaelen Murray, the son of Terry and Stephanie, is also working at the mill now, representing the fourth generation. He has a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Queens and his Masters in Forestry from the University of New Brunswick.
If there is one constant throughout the three generations of Murrays that has kept the company relevant and viable through good times and bad, it is recognizing what is important in terms of both business and personal relationships.
Dowdall Murray appreciated input and business advice based on practicality and building strong and ethical relationships with other businesses, his employees and his community. He valued education learned in the school, and life lessons learned in the mill yards and boardrooms across the Valley.
With Gaelen Murray representing the fourth generation of Murrays, he is in the unique position of having many of the attributes his grandfather instilled within the family.
Respect others and treat people fairly, give back to your community and never shy away from making the right decision when others may disagree. One thing all can agree on is Dowdall Murray lived his life as an example of decency and respect, an attribute that will no doubt carry on with the fourth generation of Murrays deep in the Madawaska Valley.