William T. Murray III, a retired First National Bank of Maryland executive, history buff and an adventurous traveler who even survived a shipwreck, died July 16 of complications from Parkinson's disease at his Cumberstone home near Harwood in Anne Arundel County.
He was 84.
The son of William T. Murray Jr., a farmer, and Edmonia Colhoun Murray, a homemaker, William Talbot Murray III was born in Washington and raised on his family's West River farm.
After graduating in 1950 from St. Andrew's School in Middletown, Del., he earned a bachelor's degree in 1954 in economics from Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., where he was a member of Alpha Delta Phi.
He served in the Army from 1954 to 1956 in Germany.
Mr. Murray began his banking career in 1956 with the old First National Bank of Maryland as a management trainee and then progressed to cashier.
He was named assistant vice president, vice president and senior vice president. He was promoted to executive vice president of operations and then joined the Financial Management and Trust Groups, a position he held until retiring in 1994.
The former Homeland resident had been a member of the American Bankers Association, the Government Relations Council and the Maryland Banker Association, where he served as president from 1993 to 1994.
Mr. Murray, who had been chairman and director of the Harbor Health System Corp. Inc., also had been assistant secretary of the hospital's board and served as a member of the finance committee for Harbor Health Center. He was a director of the Harbor Health Foundation Inc. and was a member of the board of MedStar Health.
S. Steven Sands, managing director of Wilmington Trust, was a longtime colleague and friend.
"We worked together at First National for 35 years," said Mr. Sands, a Baltimore resident.
"I respected him highly, and one of his greatest traits was that he unquestionably expected the best out of people and he got it," Mr. Sands said. "He was always fair; now, you didn't always agree with him, but he was fair."
Interested in Maryland and world history, Mr. Murray was a longtime member of the Maryland Historical Society, where had been trustee and served on the finance, executive and personnel committees.
He was also a trustee of Historic London Town and Gardens and St. Andrews School, and had served as president and treasurer of the Old South River Club
Mr. Murray's wife of 23 years, Virginia P. Clagett, was a former member of the House of Delegates, where she represented District 30 in Anne Arundel County. They were world travelers and often enjoyed traveling by ship.
In the early morning of May 10, 1995, Mr. Murray and his wife were asleep aboard Renaissance Cruise Lines' M.V. Renaissance VII as it sailed the Aegean Sea from the Greek island of Rhodes to Istanbul.
The ship abruptly came to a stop.
"It was 3 a.m., and the ship suddenly lurched. All the crew was running forward, many in their pajamas, to see what had happened. It was quite scary at first," recalled Ms. Clagett.
"We had hit a rock near Pserimos Island, which is north of Kos, Greece. No one was hurt, and we went on deck, where they gave us drinks and the ship's band decided to play 'Nearer My God to Thee.' It was before a lot of us knew about the Titanic, and the movie hadn't yet come out," she said.
"We learned it had been a navigational error and had taken place on the bridge. They had failed to make a turn. At first, they said we would wait for the tide to lift us off the rock, but that did not help," Ms. Clagett said.
"They had to unload our luggage, which they put on the ferries that had come to our rescue, which then landed us at Bodrum, Turkey," she said.
Two years later, on Nov. 17, 1997, the couple were in Luxor, Egypt, when terrorists killed 70 people — 60 of them tourists — who were had been visiting Hatshepsut's Temple, a 3,400 year-old structure that sits across the Nile from Luxor and is the resting place of Queen Hatshepsut, who had ruled Egypt from 1492 to 1458 B.C.
"As we were arriving, people were fleeing. We were safe, and at first our hotel didn't know what had happened and downplayed it, but it quickly became world news," Ms. Clagett said. "The next day, we went to the temple, but out of respect for what had happened there, we did not go in. But we did see the bullet-riddled tourist bus."
The couple soon developed a reputation for having exciting and adventuresome vacations.
"Our friends wanted to know where our next vacation was going to be so they could make other plans," Ms. Clagett said with a laugh.
In the 1980s, Mr. Murray built a small home at Cumberstone, which is on the Rhode River, a tributary of the West River, where he liked to entertain family and friends. He also enjoyed gardening, archaeology and spending time on the river.
"Every time we went to Southern Maryland to visit Bill, we had a good time," Mr. Sands said.
He was a member of the Elkridge Club.
Mr. Murray was a communicant of Christ Episcopal Church, "which his forebears had built," said Ms. Clagett. A memorial service will be held at the church, 220 Owensville Road, West River, at 10:30 a.m. Thursday.
In addition to his wife, Mr. Murray is survived by two daughters, Linda Murray of Harwood and Sally Murray of West River; a stepson, John Clagett of Friendship; a stepdaughter, Brooke Clagett of Friendship; and six grandchildren. An earlier marriage to Sally Beer ended in divorce.