Remembering When
by
Jerry Person
Huntington Beach City Historian
Dedicated to the people of Huntington Beach
Remembering John Murdy II
"At the close of the school year it is natural that we look back over our past record, congratulate ourselves over brilliant victories, make excuses for defeats and prophesy for the future." These words were expressed by John A. Murdy Jr., as we remember this individual this week.
The name of Murdy is still familiar to us today in many ways; Murdy Park, Murdy Clubhouse, Murdy Circle and Murdy Fire Station.
It all began with John's father, John A. Murdy Sr. who was a farmer in the midwest where John Archibald Murdy Jr. was born March 25, 1900 just east of the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation in the small farming community of Gettysburg, South Dakota.
When John Jr. was five years old the family moved to California to live and where the family picked a small farm in Perris, California to live and raise alfalfa and they also operated a small dairy business.
John attended grammar school in Parris for awhile until 1912 when the family moved to Westminster to live on a 10-acre farm and John would finish his early education in Westminster's grammar school.
John received his high school education at Huntington Beach High School and while there John became the athletic editor for the school's newspaper.
He was also the manager of athletics on the Student Body committee and was in the Lecture Course Committee debating other schools and he was also on the school's tennis team. John was also the manager of the school's basketball team at the same time his friend George Gothard was captain.
Some of John's fellow classmates included Harold Preston, Janice Decker, Glenna Wright, Ray Rosenberger, Fern Irwin, Royal Lemon and Norma Lorbeer.
In 1917 John appeared in a school play called "Esmeralda" in which he played the part of Dave Hardy, who in the end of the play wins the heart of Esmeralda, played by Gladyse Bollon.
John not only had to attend school but also help his father manage the 10-acre farm.
Just after he graduated from Huntington High in 1918 he enlisted in the army during World War I where he was sent to Camp Zachary Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky to attend officers training school.
When the war ended, John returned to California where he would continue his education at the University of California at Davis where he studied agriculture at the College of Agriculture and after his graduation from college John spent one year working on a farm in Stockton.
He returned to the Smeltzer area (Edinger Ave. & Gothard St.) to open a small dairy farm. John operated that dairy for three years and during that time became reacquainted with his Huntington High classmate Norma Lorbeer and on October 25, 1922 the two were married in the Asbury Methodist church in Los Angeles
Norma and John Murdy
John and Norma moved onto the farm where three children were born.
Their first child was Dorothy followed by a second daughter Maxine in 1925 and finally on April 7, 1925 their son John III or Jack as he was later to be called, came along. The family gave up the dairy business and began raising sugar beets, lima beans and alfalfa like many of their neighbors did.
By now the Murdys would raise their family in a nine room ranch house located at 6662 Heil where they lived well into the early 1950s.
As time went by John increased his acreage to over 100 acres in Huntington Beach and many more acres in Temecula and in Los Angeles County.
During this time their son Jack would win the first Huntington Beach soap box derby on Edwards Hill held here in July of 1939 and Jack would go on to win two more times which I'm sure made the family very proud.
The family attended the Wintersburg Methodist church that still stands today at the corner of Warner Avenue and Gothard Street, only today it is a Baptist church.
John was a member of the Orange County Farm Bureau and served on its water committee as chairman. He was also on the board of directors of the Smeltzer Bean Growers Association and vice president of the California Lima Bean Growers Association. John was a member of both of our Huntington Beach Rotary Club and the Huntington Beach Toastmasters Club.
In 1951 he and Norma traveled abroad and also in 1954 and on September 14, 1959 the two sailed on a two month round the world aboard the S.S. Constitution.
In John's later years he would go on to become a California Senator from 1952 to 1964 and he was a successful businessman too,.
He would later move to Newport Beach to live and also became the founding president of Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach. John passed away at age 90 on May 20, 1990 in Newport Beach.
But the part of his life that he succeeded in the most was being a devoted husband and a good father.
Photo: Murdy Family
