Mr. Murray was a former president of the Phoenixville Area Economic Development Corp. and of the Chester County Industrial Development Authority.
In 2009, his daughter said, he retired as president of the Murray Insurance Corp., which he had founded in Phoenixville.
"I was totally befuddled and unprepared for the elimination of football when it happened," Mr. Murray said in an interview in 1985.
"We were simply told by the administration that it was an irrevocable situation. That was unacceptable.
"In my opinion, the football game at Villanova is the nucleus of the social life on the Main Line."
Not only did Mr. Murray head the alumni association but, at one time, he was president of the Wildcat Club, formally known as the Villanova Education Foundation, a fund-raiser for athletic events.
Born in Carbondale, Pa., Mr. Murray graduated from Scranton Preparatory School in 1957 and earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering at Villanova University in 1961.
Mr. Murray taught physics and math at Malvern Prep for two years after graduating and was a trust officer at the First Pennsylvania Bank until 1969.
He and brother-in-law James Jordan founded Nayadic Sciences Inc, a waste treatment firm, in Phoenixville in 1969.
They sold it in 1971 to CertainTeed, where he became director of research and development and president of a research venture with an arm of the Franklin Institute.
In 1976 he and his brother-in-law bought the Columbia Hotel, a restaurant in Phoenixville, which they owned until 1984, his daughter said.
Their Murray-Jordan Restaurant Corp. then bought the Phoenixville railroad station, naming it Columbia Station, where, for a while, they housed a catering business now run by others.
He was a member of the East Pikeland Township Planning Commission and a board member of the Phoenixville Area Chamber of Commerce.
Besides his daughter, Mr. Murray is survived by wife Joan; son Douglas J. Jr.; daughters Jennifer Gleason, Erin, Kathleen Tremblay, and Susan Masciopinto; stepsons Jeff and John Merschel III; stepdaughters Lisa Quinley and Kate Dailey, 11 grandchildren; and seven step-grandchildren. His first wife, Sheila, died in 1994.
A memorial service was set for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 27, at the Phoenixville Foundry, 2 N. Main St. Burial is to be private.
Contact Walter F. Naedele at 215-854-5607 or wnaedele@phillynews.com.
