Murray Walter Frank, 93, died peacefully at his home in Jamaica Plain on January 3, 2020, surrounded by loving family.

Murray lived a long life in many chapters, and all his endeavors were unified by a belief in a more just society. Successes were hard won, and he regretted that so much of the progress he imagined remained unrealized. His greatest joy was his wife Joanna Gilman, until her death in 2012. More recently, his life was made sweeter by time spent with his companion, Phyllis Hersch, with whom he travelled and was active at Temple Shalom in Newton. He loved and was greatly loved and admired by his four children and their partners: Lisa and John Scarsella, Peter and Jonathan Lerner, Nathaniel, and Jeremiah and Licia Carlson, and by his grandchildren, Edward, Kimberly, Jessica and Julian.

Murray was born February 17, 1927 in the Bronx. He and his older brother Arnold were raised by their parents Jacob and Elizabeth (Neitlich) in an orthodox Jewish home. Murray's name was an Americanized rendering of Moshe, after his maternal grandfather, who ran a business making gloves and corsets. He had happy memories of shop class at PS 86, and loved to spend time in his own woodworking shop later in life. Murray served in the Pacific during World War II with the US Army Air Corps, enlisting as soon as he graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School. After the war he went to New York University on the GI Bill. There he joined the Student Division of the World Federalists, an international movement which embodied the idealism of the post-war years in the spirit of the United Nations. He took a year off from college to organize for them full time, launching a lifetime of work on social issues.  

After earning a masters degree in social work at Columbia University in 1954, Murray began working at a community center in Brockton, MA. In 1956 he married Ginna (deConingh), and they moved to Chicago soon after, where he worked at a settlement house in the Ukrainian Village neighborhood. He joined the first cohort of the Peace Corps in 1961, and was stationed in Nigeria for three years, accompanied by Ginna and their two young children, Lisa and Peter. He often said it was the most exciting time of his life.

1965 was a busy year; the family returned to the U.S., he travelled to Alabama to join the Selma to Montgomery march for voting rights led by Dr. Martin Luther King, his marriage to Ginna ended and he moved back to New York City. The following year he met his second wife, Peggy (Galdston). They settled in Newton, where Nathaniel and Jeremiah were born. That marriage lasted 18 years. 

In 1967, Murray enrolled in a doctoral program in social policy at the Heller School of Brandeis University. Murray’s career then took him to Rutgers University, where he was tasked with creating courses in social policy for the urban planning school; and then to the New York City branch of AFSCME, the public employees' union, where he directed a broad and innovative continuing education curriculum.

Murray returned to Massachusetts in 1980 and began a long chapter at UMass Boston. He first served as dean of the newly created College of Public and Community Service and later became a fellow of the McCormack Institute. Murray thrived in those years in a role created especially for his skill set, acting as a liaison with the public sector, non-profits and community groups, and finding ways the University could broaden its impact outside its walls.

During this period he met and married Joanna. After many happy years in the Boston area, they retired to Martha’s Vineyard. Murray stayed active as ever. He joined the local Planning Board and helped design an improved community medical care system for the island. He and Joanna loved the Vineyard but missed city life and returned to Boston in 2005.

Pancreatic cancer overtook Murray’s body in recent years but his mind stayed quick. He tenaciously held the view that he could out-maneuver his illness and for a good long time he succeeded. He spoke little of his discomfort and remained purposeful. Until shortly before his death he met regularly by Zoom with committees at Beacon Hill Village, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and other organizations he continued to serve. 

Murray closely followed news of the world, mostly incredulously but sometimes with hope. At Chanukah he reminded us that it was a time to celebrate driving out tyrants. And as he became aware that his time was short, Murray put enormous energy into friends and family, deepening important relationships and even forging new ones in the midst of the pandemic. His fascination with people and with the world in general sustained him and inspired those around him. His life was always his own and he guided it to a graceful close.

Donations in his honor may be made to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, which provided both Murray and Joanna with remarkable care.