From
Corporate Life to Country Life
Posted: August 25, 2003
Update
February 2009: Jack Murray died peacefully at home after a long
courageous battle with cancer. He was 69 years old. Jack served as chair
of the PA Forest Stewards steering committee for a number of years, and
he and Suzanne were instrumental in starting many of the existing woodland
owners associations in the state. They are both owed a huge debt of gratitude
for all that they have done to promote forest stewardship on private lands
in Pennsylvania. Jack will be missed.
In a previous life, Jack and Suzanne Murray were senior corporate executives based in Manhattan. Their lifestyle included the opera, international travel, and patronage at some of the best restaurants. After many years, they moved near Hughesville, Pennsylvania to the middle of their 130 wooded acres. And their lifestyle shifted to include a golden retriever, chain saws, and deer fencing.
The Murrays insisted that it wasn't as radical a change as one might think. Jack was raised in suburban Philadelphia and Suzanne was originally from Davenport, Iowa. Unlike many native-born New Yorkers, they felt an affinity for the woods. They often spent their weekends away from the city in their country home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Jack noted, "You know you have a vocation and an avocation. My avocation was playing in the dirt and my vocation was corporate life." They described their move from the 7 acres in Bucks County to the 130 in Lycoming as a "ramp up."
Nor did they completely leave the corporate world behind. As part of The Knockroe Group, the couple's part-time consulting business, they occasionally left Hughesville to meet with clients. Suzanne commented, "We do just enough to keep our hand in," and Jack added, "It keeps us current."
They used their business skills for local volunteer work as well. Suzanne and Jack co-chaired the Hughesville sesquicentennial celebration committee, which planned the 2002 celebration including a parade, exhibits, live entertainment, and fireworks. They were secretary and president, respectively, of the Lycoming Woodland Owners' Association and they held similar leadership positions with the PA Forest Stewards Steering Committee.
The excellent communications skills that the Murrays developed as executives contributed to their work in forest stewardship. Believing strongly in the power of woodlands associations to promote sustainable forestry, they were active in helping interested landowners form such associations. Suzanne said, "Those are the people that are on the ground talking to other woodland owners who are thinking about say, a timber harvest, and to have those people educated is really the way we're going to move the ball forward in forest stewardship."
Soon after they arrived at Knockroe (the Murray's name for their woodland), their neighbor, then district forester, Bud Kiehl, mentored their stewardship efforts. Kiehl helped them mark timber stand improvement areas and build recreational trails. Drafting a stewardship management plan, they decided not to harvest, but to maintain the forest, keeping it healthy and beautiful and welcoming for wildlife. They did much of the work themselves, from clearing out trash along their mile-long section of a township road to planting vegetation around the pond for wildlife cover. They named and made signs for their trails: oak hill, scenic overlook, bear, and elderberry.
Jack enjoyed the maintenance too much to consider it work. "I love cutting lawns. You know, sense of accomplishment. Then you look behind and it looks so good and it smells nice." Suzanne found the lifestyle she craved for years. As a financial vice president, her boss would call at any hour on nights or weekends to discuss business. When she wasn't working she spent much of her time in the car, commuting back and forth from Bucks County. "I used to be driving and I'd look into people's windows and I'd see them in front of the television or reading a book and relaxing and I'd think, some day I'm not going to be doing this commute. I'm not going to be doing this drive. I'm going to be relaxing at my own place-and here we are." According to the Murrays, every day at Knockroe is a beautiful day. Jack loved to watch the low cloud cover in the trees. Suzanne enjoys cooking with the culinary herbs she grows in her herb garden.
Knockroe is the name of the township in Ireland from which Jack's family emigrated. Although the Murrays didn't cross oceans to reach Hughesville, Pennsylvania, they agreed - the New York City corporate world is a different world. "We just felt that we'd had enough of it and it was time for a change," Jack said. "Looking back, it was a great decision for us. It's not a good decision for everybody necessarily."
So why was it a good decision for them? Suzanne explains, "We felt like we had accomplished what we had set out to do for our individual careers and we were ready to make the switch." The greatest accomplishment of their careers, they say, was helping others achieve success. Jack noted, "It's nice to be able to look back and remember whom you've helped." No longer immersed in the business world, the Murrays'desire to help others continues with their contribution to the Pennsylvania Forest Stewardship Program. They may have retired, but the Murrays did not stop making a difference.
