My Eldest Brother
Edward Stephen Murray
(1941 - 2001)
My brother Steve was a noted attorney and longtime Cumberland, Maine town official.
He was born in Arlington, Massachusetts and graduated from Arlington Senior High School, Class of 1959. He earned his undergraduate degree at Harvard University in 1963 and his Doctorate of Law at Georgetown University Law Center in 1968. During law school he worked for the U.S. Bureau of Customs. Following graduation, he settled in Portland, Maine where he joined the firm of Drummond, Wescott and Woodsum.
In 1970, he became a Maine Assistant Attorney General, being responsible for environmental matters. During this tenure, he represented the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Conservation, the Land Use Regulatory Commission, the State Planning Office, the Department of Marine Resources, the Department of Parks and Recreation, the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and the Baxter State Park Authority. He drafted and defended new laws on land use, clean air, clean water and freedom of information for the State of Maine and many such laws were used as model laws for other States.
In 1973, he founded the Portland law firm of Murray, Plumb & Murray, along with Peter Plumb and Peter Murray. His practice concentrated on environmental laws and regulations and municipal law. He served as his firm’s managing partner and remained the senior partner until his retirement in 2000.
He served on the Cumberland, Maine Town Council for 12 years, five years as Chairman, and on many municipal and state committees and commissions as well as on local nonprofit boards and committees. In 1998, he was a candidate for the Maine State Senate, missing by a few hundred votes against a then State Representative.
He was a student of the writings of the late Gov. Percival Baxter and spent much of his legal career defending and promoting the instructions left by Baxter for the care and maintenance of Baxter State Park. Steve was listed several times in Who’s Who in American Law as one of Maine’s top environmental lawyers.
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