William E. Murray

Bill passed into the arms of our Lord on Wednesday, September 21, 2022 at his home in Sugarland, Tx. He was born on January 13, 1931 in Peland, New York and was preceded in death by his parents William Elmer Murray II and Helen Murray. Survivors include his wife Yadira (Za za) and his three sons, Bill, Peter and Bruce.

Bill attended Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and graduated in 1952 with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. While attending college Bill joined the Lehigh Swim team where he excelled in high diving competition. Upon graduation, Bill served in the U.S. Army for 2 years and was stationed in Korea. After his discharge, Bill put his engineering knowledge into practice by working for well-known oilfield services companies including Bechtel, Shell Oil and Control Components. Bill received a number of awards for his innovative ideas over the course of his professional career but one of his most significant career accomplishments was inventing an energy saving process pump used in the refinery process known as Split Flow for which he received 2 U.S. patents.

Bill met his wife, Yadira (Za za), while attending a party in California and they were ultimately married in 1980. Za za was born and raised in Costa Rica, and it was love at first sight. On one of the first of many visits to Costa Rica over the 42 years of their marriage, Za za’s mother commented that she was so happy for her daughter because she finally fulfilled one of her many childhood dreams by finding and marrying a “Gringo”.

Bill will be remembered most for his relaxed and fun loving approach to life. He was quick-witted, never met a stranger, loved to read, was an avid story teller and to those that really knew him he was referred to as the happy go lucky jokester. Bill lived his life and had a passion for meeting new friends and making people laugh. Bill could regularly be seen carrying brown envelopes and handing them out to his friends. The envelopes typically contained his most recent jokes, copies of comic strips and interesting articles and clippings. One of his prized handouts was a 4 page document he entitled “Wismors” (Wisdom / Humor), which was a collection of his favorite thought provoking, humorous one liner quotes spoken by famous people (ex: Half the art of living is resilience – the other half is doing doings stupid things that require resilience).

A visitation will be held on Wednesday, September 28 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in the chapel at Earthman Southwest Funeral Home, 12555 South Kirkwood Road in Stafford, with the recitation of the Holy Rosary at 7:00 p.m.

A funeral mass will be held on Thursday, September 29 at 11:00 a.m. at St. Theresa Catholic Church, 705 St. Theresa Blvd in Sugar Land, where Fr. David Angelino is to officiate.

The Rite of Committal will follow, via funeral procession to Houston National Cemetery where Military Honors will be rendered.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared with his family at www.earthmansouthwest.com.