When Mike Murray helped his high school football team win a state championship in 1985, he never thought it would lead to a 32-year career in the military.
Murray, the head of gift and estate planning at Hillsdale College, will retire from the United States Marine Corps Reserve this fall after 32 years of service.
His journey to the armed forces started when West Point noticed his athletic skill at Divine Child High School in Dearborn, Michigan. Although Murray did not attend West Point, the recognition sparked his interest.
“There was somebody at Divine Child whose dad was connected to the service academies, so they must have put my name on a list and I started getting letters from the Army,” he said. “I grew up in a very patriotic home, so I went through the process, interviewed with the local congressman, and got an alternate nomination,” he said.
Murray ended up playing football and baseball at Albion College instead. Murray said he hoped to pursue his childhood dream of becoming a prosecutor while studying at Albion.
Still, military service was never far from Murray’s mind.
“It kind of sparked this concept of service,” Murray said. “I started going through the application process and came to this realization: ‘Service is something I want to do because my country has blessed my family.’”
During his three years at Albion, Murray served as an interfraternity president and spent summers playing football abroad in Ireland. After graduating a semester early, Murray began to look at the law programs for different branches of service. Most services send hopeful judge advocates to what is called office introduction school, a six-week program designed to teach military rank and culminating in a law contract.
“I looked at them, I did some research and discovered that the only one that actually puts you through Officer Candidate School and gives you that challenge was the Marine Corps,” Murray said. “You spend six months in basic and learn about the weapons systems. “
After the recruiting process, Murray signed a contract as he made his way back to the campus of Albion College for spring commencement. He attended OCS that summer.
“I was commissioned on the morning of Aug. 16, boarded a plane that afternoon, came home and started law school the next Monday,” he said.
From 1994 to 2002, Murray served on active duty in the U.S. Marine Corps as a judge advocate. In 2002, he came off active duty for the first time. A year later, during Operation Iraqi Freedom, the phone rang once more, and he accepted an activation to serve as an officer out of Battle Creek, Michigan. After the offensive push, Murray remained in the Reserve.
“I started doing the Reserve and I liked that I was able to juggle it,” he said. “Then it got me promoted. I was a major before I came off active duty.”
He was activated again in 2006 and joined a unit that went to Iraq. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel. With connections in Washington, D.C., Murray provided the college football staff an opportunity to tour the capitol.
“The whole trip was a big patriotism boost,” Keith Otterbein, head football coach at Hillsdale College, said. “Even beyond the trip, we are fortunate to have Michael as a Marine. His discipline and priorities are right where they need to be. He is a man of phenomenal integrity.”
Director of Health Services Broke Lutz said he befriended Murray when they began working at Hillsdale on the same day 12 years ago.
“Michael has an uncanny ability to walk into a room and know 95% of the people by two degrees of separation,” Lutz said. “I think that is a tribute to his memory of people, the various things that he has done in his life, and his genuine desire and ability to love everyone he meets well.”
