Douglas Maitland Murray, M.D.

February 8, 1928 -  December 12, 2018

Residence: Fort Collins, Colorado 

Dr. Douglas Maitland Murray, a resident of Fort Collins for more than 50 years, died at his home on December 12, 2018. He was 90 years old. Just two months before, Doug's beloved wife Molly also died.

Doug was born February 8, 1928 (2-8-28) in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Francis King Murray and Dorothy Maitland Lee Griggs. He was the youngest of three children, having two older sisters. Sadly, his father died of kidney disease when Doug was just 15 months old, thus Doug was raised in a family of three women.

When Doug was seven years old, his mother decided to relocate her young family from New England to Palo Alto, California, where her father-in-law, A.T. Murray, was a founding member of the Stanford University Faculty, where he taught Greek, Latin, and theology. The California Murrays were devout Quakers whose humanitarian tenets of kindness, fairness, empathy, and generosity had a lifelong influence on Doug.

As a young man Doug spent a good deal of time in Yosemite Valley, spending summers working in the park, and attending school there for a year in junior high. Close friends of his parents, Don and Mary Curry Tresidder ran the lodge and concessions, and provided jobs and a home for young Doug. He and his cousin John Murray often spoke of the idyllic summers working as bus-boys in the Park during the early years of WW II. Even after he had happily become a “Coloradoan”, Doug maintained affectionate feelings for the unique spot that is Yosemite. 

Upon graduating from Palo Alto High School in 1945, Doug joined the United States Navy, spending a year attending classes at Arizona State Teachers College in Flagstaff, and then at the University of Southern California. Since WW II had ended, he then returned to Palo Alto to enroll at Stanford as a sophomore. Doug continued on at Stanford receiving his BA in biology in 1949, a Masters in education in 1951, and ultimately his M.D. in 1956. Until recently Doug made regular pilgrimages to California to attend school reunions at both Palo Alto High School and Stanford, ever valuing and nurturing his lifelong friendships with classmates.

During the Palo Alto years Doug married his high school sweetheart, Pauline Kirkpatrick and had the first two of what would become his nine children. The young family lived in Palo Alto, where Pauline and the girls (Sally and Martha) remained after the divorce. Doug’s second wife, Kathryn Parker (Kay), was also a Stanford student. They went on to have five more children (Carolyn, twins Timothy and Todd, Andrew, and Elizabeth). Between the births of Andy and Liz, the growing family moved from California to Fort Collins in 1961. Doug saw great opportunity in the small Colorado town that had a shortage of orthopedists. The seeds were sewn for the development and growth of what has become today’s Orthopaedic and Spine Center of the Rockies. Doug was one of its founding members, along with three other doctors.

The Murray family grew even larger. After the divorce from his second wife, Doug had the great fortune to marry Molly Brown, with whom he shared a blessed and charmed life for almost 47 years full of love, adventure, friends, family, travel, and always their beloved dogs. Although they did not have children together, Molly brought two sons, Scott and Mark Brown, into the ever-growing Murray clan. All of Molly and Doug’s nine children were equally considered part of the brood. Sadly, Scott passed away in 1995 and Andy in 2017. It was a great blow for Doug and Molly to have children predecease them. Worse still, the recent loss of Molly brought Doug unimaginable heartbreak.

Aside from his medical practice Doug and Molly were active participants for many years in life in Fort Collins, particularly through St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and the Fort Collins Country Club.They were also avid fans of CSU Rams athletics. Doug was also a long-time member of Kiwanis Club. Until recently he was regularly meeting with a group of friends on Fridays for a “guys” lunch at Jay’s Bistro as well as attending a coffee get-together once a month with a group of friends and staff who all retired from the Orthopaedic Center of the Rockies.

Throughout their years together Doug and Molly enjoyed traveling internationally as well as throughout the United States. In 1982 they spent several months sailing around the world on the “Semester at Sea” ship with Doug working as the doctor on board. In 1985 he became the team doctor for the US Women’s Ski Team during a two-week tour for training and competition in the Italian Alps. The most extraordinary of Doug’s international work experiences was when he volunteered as a doctor during the Vietnam War in early 1968. He spent two months in a village called Rach Gia working in a Vietnamese hospital under the auspices of USAID. The infamous Tet Offensive, the bloodiest battle of the war, began shortly after his arrival. Letters home from that period chronicle the harrowing and exhausting conditions of his experience. At one point he wrote, “Being as busy as I was then was fortunate because I had no real fear then.”

Doug was truly a Renaissance man. From an early age he showed interest and talent in drawing and painting after his maternal grandfather, a skilled painter, took him on a few pleinaire painting adventures on both coasts. He continued to draw and paint throughout his life. After his retirement from the practice of medicine in 1997, Doug branched out to sculpting in bronze demonstrating his knowledge of human and animal anatomy. Some of his work can be seen at St. Luke’s and various locations on the CSU campus. Doug also took great pleasure in writing eloquent and humorous letters and essays, demonstrating great affinity for being able to craft his words thoughtfully and wittily. For most of his life, he was an avid and skilled participant in sports. He taught three wives, 9 children and several grandchildren how to ski. He skied with grace and beauty until just a few years ago. Molly and Doug also shared many enjoyable years as enthusiasts of tennis and golf.

Doug leaves behind seven children and their mates, 19 grandchildren, 12 great grandchildren, and countless friends plus an exemplary thirst for knowledge and creativity and an abiding legacy of love.

Services honoring Doug’s life will be held at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Fort Collins on Saturday, January 19, at 1:30 pm. In lieu of flowers, donations will be gratefully accepted at St. Luke’s, the Sierra Club, or the Yosemite Conservancy.