Joseph T Murray

Joseph T Murray, 86, of Wilmington, DE and Weekapaug, RI died peacefully on April 4, 2023 after a brief illness.

Joe is survived by his beloved wife of 63 years, Jane St. Amant Murray, his three sons Michael (Sally) of Nahant, MA, Andrew (Emily) of Barrington, RI and Stephen (Jennifer) of Wayland, MA, and by his 8 grandchildren; Maggie, Grace, Mary, Peter, Tommy, Julia, Patrick and Bobby. Joe is also survived by his brother Terry (Suzanne) of Narragansett, RI and Palm Beach, FL. Joe enjoyed the love of his family as well as that of his many nieces, nephews, in-laws and friends.

Joe was born July 8, 1936 in Woonsocket, RI to Joseph W. and Florence (Blackburn) Murray. He and Terry were raised in a rented third floor rear unit of a triple-decker on Summer Street.
At the start of the summer of 1956, their father drove Joe and Terry to Cape Cod, dropped them in Chatham and told them to find work and get home before school started in the fall. Joe met Jane that summer, through Terry’s introduction.

Joe graduated from La Salle Academy in Providence and earned a BS and Master’s degree in Chemistry from the College of the Holy Cross, which he attended on an ROTC scholarship. Joe and Jane married in Waban, MA in 1960, and moved to Dayton, OH where Joe served in the Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB until 1962.

Joe joined the DuPont Company in Wilmington in 1962 and enjoyed a 40-year career at the company with increasingly challenging roles and responsibilities. In a textile mill in South Carolina, he met a plant manager who had a distinct accent and a French-Canadian last name. Joe surprised him by asking him which street he was from in Woonsocket. He was right. Joe finished his career at DuPont as the Vice President of Strategic Planning and retired in 2001. Joe’s job took him all around the world helping to inspire his lifelong passion for fine cuisines of all types, the spicier the better.

Joe lived his life with humility, a wonderful sense of humor, a keen sense of irony and a healthy skepticism. He was a voracious reader and had opinions and insights on an incredibly wide range of topics. Joe kept all of us laughing and learning from his place at the head of the dinner table. He was the bedrock of our extended family and will be sorely missed and lovingly remembered by us.

Joe’s family is planning to celebrate his life in a private ceremony later this spring. If you wish to honor Joe’s memory, please consider a donation to either of these organizations: Sunday Breakfast Mission (sundaybreakfastmission.org), 110 Poplar Street, Wilmington, DE 19801 or The Weekapaug Foundation for Conservation (weekapaugfoundation.org), PO Box 3067, Westerly, RI 02891