Philip Murray, 85; owned island store, helped others

While a segment of the sartorial world knew of Philip Chase Murray for his Nantucket Reds slacks, his fellow islanders knew him as a beloved friend and philanthropist. He shaped the lives of countless young people who worked at his Murray's Toggery Shop on Main Street in Nantucket, residents said.

Mr. Murray, a fourth -generation Nantucket native, died Feb. 1 of complications of diabetes in Nantucket Cottage Hospital. He was 85.

"Phil took me as a dead-end kid who was going to do nothing and over the years motivated me to have longtime goals and to reach for things I didn't think were attainable," said Richard Brooks, who worked in Mr. Murray's store as a youth and is now a financial planner on Nantucket.

"Over the years," Brooks said, "Phil gave a lot back to the community and helped people who needed help. If a man needed a job, Phil would find one for him or created one for him. You never knew who was doing the weeding around his house, whether it needed it or not. If a man needed a suit, it would arrive mysteriously at his house. He did all of this quietly, not expecting anything in return."

Nantucket Cottage Hospital was among many island institutions he gave his time and financial support, serving as its president and on its board of trustees. In the early 1980s, according to hospital spokesman Charles Gifford, Mr. Murray and the late Alexander Craig ran the Lifetime Endowment Drive "that gave the hospital the financial stability it had lacked."

Off-island and around the world, Mr. Murray is better known for his Nantucket Reds, which he introduced at his shop after taking it over from his father in 1959. His wife, Elizabeth (Cumby), said the family trademarked the name some years ago.

"It was the younger Murray who brought the store its cachet by adding a line of canvas pants," the Cape Cod Times said on his death. "Starting off 'Brittany red,' the color of sails used on boats in the Brittany region of France, the pants slowly faded to a dull pink with each washing. . . . Soon, vacationers were donning the pants for everything from yachting ventures to cocktail parties."

In 1994, Nantucket magazine described Mr. Murray as "the man who helped turn a simple pair of red sailcloth pants into an internationally famous line of men's and women's clothing, equally appropriate for days on the golf course and nights at the yacht club."

Mr. Murray had a famous belly laugh, friends said, that matched his booming voice, which could be heard even when he was sweeping the sidewalk outside his shop.

That was the first job his father gave him when he joined the company in 1951, Mr. Murray's wife said. "Phil was out there sweeping the sidewalk until he retired," in the late 1990s, she said.

The hundreds of notes she received on his death recalled his larger-than-life presence. "People wrote of his wonderful laughter and his smile," she said. "He was a people magnet."

Though he was the boss, Mr. Murray still waited on customers and fitted their suits, always remembering their names and sizes.

He was born on Nantucket to Philip Murray Jr. and Alice (Chase) Murray. His grandparents and great-grandparents were also born on the island.

At a performance of the Boston Pops Orchestra on Nantucket's Jetties Beach, for which he was a key player, Mr. Murray recalled how as a boy in 1933 he had been "hanging cloths on the line for my mother" when a woman stopped by who said she was collecting money for Nantucket Cottage Hospital. "I reached into my pocket and proudly handed her a quarter," he said.

Graduating from Nantucket High School in 1939, Mr. Murray went off-island to Oberlin College in Ohio, a brave act in those days for an island youth, who had to take the boat to Woods Hole and the train to Ohio, said his daughter, Diana Swets of Westborough.

He joined the Army and while at Camp Picket, Va., met Elizabeth Cumby of Blackstone, Va. They married in 1945. Three weeks later, Mr. Murray was sent to the Philippines. Mr. Murray was discharged as a captain the next year and returned to Virginia, working for the American Legion. He helped returning veterans and their families.

Deciding to settle on Nantucket, the couple bought their first lot in the island's Monomoy section for $1,000, his wife said. "There was hardly anything there," she said. "His father said, 'That sandpit? Get rid of it!' It's now worth millions."

Mr. Murray's creative mind also turned what had been a shop where workmen bought clothing and boots into an upscale trendy one, his family said. "When Phil took over the shop, wonderful things happened," said his sister, Shirley M. Rowley of Millis. "One was buying a shop next door and turning it into the women's department."

He made Murray's Toggery not only a popular shop, but a training ground for young people he hired. Mr. Murray showed his faith in them by putting his daughter, Patricia, then still in her teens, in charge of the women's shop. Now, she and her husband, Gilles Bridier, have key roles in the store.

Patricia Haley, a Nantucket school teacher, started working there when she was 14. "Phil had expectations for everyone who worked there," she said. "He treated the kids whose parents were wealthy and arrived for work in chauffeur-driven cars and those of us who walked there from home all the same."

Besides his wife, his two daughters, and his sister, Mr. Murray leaves a son, John of Nantucket, and six grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held 4 p.m. on Aug. 17 in St. Paul's Church in Nantucket.