“My family grew up with the legend that the old boy arrived at the wharf in old muddy York and rolled two kegs of gold onto the jetty.” Murray, in Jack Gorman’s biography Pere Murray and the Hounds, 1977, on the arrival of his grandfather, William Allan Murray, to Toronto from Ireland with his wife Jane Anne MacNamara in 1854.

 

“Old dad was an active energetic enthusiast of unsparing aggressiveness, his achievements were many on behalf of Canada.” Murray in a letter in 1930 to Sir Arthur Doughty, Canada’s National Archivist, describes his father, James Peter Murray – a successful businessman and community activist.

 

“The Scots built Canada!” Murray in the thesis: Father Athol Murray and the Faculty of Arts at Notre Dame College, 1990, asserting his Scottish heritage and its influence on him to become a builder.

 

“ I was growing up pretty much alone. I’ve always been alone!” Murray to the CBC “Telescope,” 1971, commenting on the death of his mother when he was four and its consequences.

 

“That training of mine (a French Classical education in Quebec) was wonderful…It gave me the ability to dramatize what was important in order to get it across.” Murray on his ‘educational odyssey’ in a taped interview about his life to Father Jim Weisgerber, 1962.

 

“ We used to tour the northern lakes of Ontario, but he always carried the books of Francis Parkman with the stories of the Jesuit martyrs…. insisting that I read all this stuff. And, of course, my education leapt.” Murray to CBC “Telescope,” 1971 commenting on the influence of Dr. Edward Renouf of Johns Hopkins University with whom he spent summers for twenty five years.

 

“And oh…. the enthusiasm I got out of that. I was thrilled…. the heroism. I got to know Maisonneuve, Brebeuf and Lalement as familiars…. And, I don’t know…I….I…grew up largely because of this in the atmosphere of the heroic…. And these great, great heroes – I loved them and they inspired my life and…I figured that was natural! I knew nothing about this mass man mediocrity we have today. We….we were born to be heroes!” Murray to CBC Telescope,” 1971 commenting on the influence of a Montreal Jesuit Iroquois tutor he had as a preschooler. This Fr. Quirk used to dramatize the history of New France.

 

“ That hit me!” Murray to CBC “Telescope, 1971 commenting on two passages in the Confessions of Saint Augustine that abruptly ended his study of law at Osgood Hall in 1914 and led to his vocation to the priesthood. These statements were: “To him who does what in him lies, God will not deny his grace” and, “ Hovered over me, faithful from afar, thy mercy Lord.”

 

“ I am glad to be able to share Rev. Athol Murray for the service of your Grace. This young priest is zealous and talented, but has a lively imagination and temperament and needs to be guided and at times restrained in his projects and talk… On the other hand, his energies can be directed into good channels, and he needs activity as an outlet for his abundant energy.” Letter of recommendation in 1923 from Archbishop Neil McNeil of Toronto who ‘loaned’ Athol Murray to Archbishop Olivier Mathieu of Regina. The Regina prelate required a bilingual Chancellor because of French/English tensions in Saskatchewan.

 

“Father Murray arrived August 14, 1927 in an old dilapidated car with a whole load of boys from his Argos hockey team in Regina. They ended up staying with him in the rectory and going to classes in our school.” Mother Edith McCullough, principal of Notre Dame of the Prairies convent school, commenting on the arrival of Athol Murray to Wilcox to become pastor of Saint Augustine parish.

 

“On the eve of the feast of the Canadian Martyrs we are anxiously awaiting word from you that our affiliation with Ottawa University is a “fait accompli.” Murray to the University of Ottawa rector, Sept. 24^th, 1933. Students and staff had been put in place prior to official Ottawa acceptance for during the ‘depression,’ this was the hope he had put out to the young people of the district.

 

“After much consideration, I have come to the conclusion that you must not open your school to the boys next year….conditions…are not entirely satisfactory…. I rely on you to be absolutely loyal in carrying this direction into effect.” Archbishop James McGuigan to Murray, July 24, 1934 after he heard reports Murray had expelled two students who joined a CCF ‘cell,’ to the political embarrassment of the archbishop, and that living conditions were ‘miserable.’

 

“…not only were there no failures but the entire group came through splendidly. Four- fifths of the students were not able to defray expense even in a small way. They represent the finest element in South Saskatchewan. To abandon them now with conditions as they are would be tragedy indeed….Any investigation will find that only God’s hand could do what has been done at such a slender margin of expense.” Murray in response to McGuigan, August 13^th, 1934.

 

“Notre Dame is the only co-educational, non sectarian college under Roman Catholic auspices in existence! Open mindedness, that’s the spirit of the thing.” Murray to Rex Beach of Cosmopolitan Magazine, Oct. 1937; and, to Mary Weeks of MacLeans Magazine, Feb. 1936.

 

 

“Nor did it help things last month when my dentist insisted on depriving me of all my teeth. Life has variety to offer in the way of human experience but I wouldn’t wish torture like this even on Adolphe Hitler.” Murray gets his famous ‘take them out when public speaking’ upper and lower plates in January 1943.

 

“To formulate, clarify and vitalize the ideas that should animate Canada – that is the objective of Notre Dame…That is our priority.” Murray writing in the Notre Dame publication, The Laocoon,. 1943.

 

“Excellence, which attracts the true athlete…, is the expression of a spirit of competition and of a desire for that perfection in performance which is attained only though untiring effort.” Murray writing about the Greek influence on sport in the Notre Dame Publication, The Laocoon, 1943.

 

“Not by human design, the statue of the Christ today is in the exact centre of our campus. The college grew around it. And Notre Dame men see the Christ in a clearer light; and they have an intensity of their own in interpreting the words: “I have come to cast my fire…what will I but that it be kindled.” Murray as quoted in The Notre Dame Compendium, 1990.

“ We have to tell the people that God really is a great quarterback – almost as good as Ron Lancaster!’ Murray’s last speech at Regina’s Centre of the Arts, November,1975.

 

“All that we need are great individuals…and so tonight, on this occasion which is a great occasion for Athol Murray, I plead with you to chart your course and the course of your children…and be determined that these children of yours are going to be individuals of self-determination…self-realization. Then Canada will be the greatest country the world has ever seen in the annals of mankind.” Murray’s last speech at Regina’s Centre of the Arts, November, 1975.

 

“I wondered what manner of man was the Good Samaritan? How many of you realize that the Good Samaritan, Athol Murray, has been living amongst us all these years? Msgr. Murray has brought hope, education and inspiration to Canada….” Brigadier E.A.McCusker, M.D. on the occasion of opening McCusker Hall at Notre Dame College, 1968.

 

“I’d like to be remembered as a guy, like Augustine, who could have gone wrong, but who found his God and with His grace, did a little work for Him. That’s about all.” Murray to CBC “Telescope.” 1971.