The origins of the Murdy name in Surf City

A LOOK BACK

John A. Murdy Jr. once said, at the close of the school year it is

natural that we look back over our past record, congratulate

ourselves over brilliant victories, make excuses for defeats and

prophesy for the future.

The name Murdy is still familiar to us today in many ways. We have

Murdy Park, Murdy Community Center, Murdy Circle and Murdy Fire

Station.

It all began with John’s father, John A. Murdy Sr. who was a

farmer in the Midwest when John Jr. was born in 1900 just east of the

Cheyenne River Indian Reservation in the small farming community of

Gettysburg, S.D.

When John was 5 years old the family moved to California to live.

The family picked a small farm in Perris, California to live and

raise alfalfa and they also operated a small dairy business.

John attended grammar school in Perris until 1912 when the family

moved to Westminster to live on a 10-acre farm. John would finish his

early education in Westminster’s grammar school. He received his high

school education at Huntington Beach High School. While there, John

became the athletic editor for the school’s newspaper. He was also

the manager of athletics on the student body committee and was on the

Lecture Course Committee debating other schools and he was on the

school’s tennis team.

John was also the manager of the school’s basketball team at the

same time his friend George Gothard was captain. Some of John’s

fellow classmates included Harold Preston, Janice Decker, Glenna

Wright, Ray Rosenberger, Fern Irwin, Royal Lemon and Norma Lorbeer.

In 1917 John appeared in a school play called “Esmeralda” in which

he played the part of Dave Hardy, who in the end of the play wins the

heart of Esmeralda, played by Gladyse Bollon.

John not only had to attend school but also help his father manage

the 10-acre farm. Just after he graduated from Huntington High in

1918 he enlisted in the Army during World War I. He was sent to Camp

Zachary Taylor in Louisville, Ky. to attend officers training school.

When the war ended John returned to California where he would

continue his education at the UC Davis and he studied agriculture at

the College of Agriculture there also.

After his graduation from college John spent one year working on a

farm in Stockton.

Then he returned to the Smeltzer area (Edinger Avenue and Gothard

Street) to open a small dairy farm. John operated that dairy for

three years and during this time became reacquainted with his

Huntington High classmate Norma Lorbeer and on Oct. 25, 1922 the two

were married in the Asbury Methodist church in Los Angeles.

John and Norma moved onto John’s farm where three children were

born. The first child was Dorothy followed by a second daughter

Maxine in 1925 and finally on April 7, 1925 their son John III, or

Jack as he was called, came along.

The family gave up the dairy business and began raising sugar

beets, lima beans and alfalfa like many of their neighbors did. The

Murdys raised their family in their nine-room ranch house located at

6662 Heil Ave. well into the early 1950s.

As time went by John increased his acreage to more than 100 acres

in Huntington Beach and many more acres in Temecula and in Los

Angeles County.

In an earlier column we learned that their son Jack won the first

Huntington Beach soap box derby held here in July of 1939 and Jack

would go on to win two more times, which I’m sure made the family

very proud.

The Murdys attended the Wintersburg Methodist church that still

stands today at the corner of Warner Avenue and Gothard Street, only

today it is a Baptist church.

John was a member of the Orange County Farm Bureau and served on

its water committee as chairman. He was on the board of directors of

the Smeltzer Bean Growers Assn. and as vice president of the

California Lima Bean Growers Assn.

John was a member of both of our Huntington Beach Rotary Club and

the Huntington Beach Toastmasters Club.

In 1951 he and Norma traveled abroad and again in 1954. On Sept.

14, 1959 they set sail on a two-month round the world tour aboard the

S.S. Constitution.

In later years he would go on to become a California Senator and a

successful businessman and in a later column we will look back at

that time in his life.

But the part of his life that he succeeded most was being a

devoted husband and a good father, I heard.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach

resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box

7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.