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RHD remembers, honors homelessness advocate & great friend Murray Dodge
6/1/2010 8:16:03 AM
RHD and Endow-A-Home lost one of its most fervent backers in March with the passing of Murray Dodge.
Murray, a resident of Haverford, worked as a stock exchange executive until, according to Endow-A-Home Director Cynthia Brooks, “he said he’d had a good life, and he wanted to give back.” He left the corporate world to become The Haverford School’s first development director, and then in retirement volunteered with several nonprofit organizations, including Endow-A-Home.
A friend of RHD’s Executive Director and CEO Bob Fishman, Murray became acquainted with Fishman’s dream for the program that became Endow-A-Home. The plight of single moms struck a chord with him and he enthusiastically agreed to use his fundraising skills and connections to help build the program.
“Without Murray’s dedication and support, Endow-A-Home would never have grown and thrived the way it has,’’ Fishman said. “Thanks in large part to his efforts, 23 formerly homeless women are now homeowners and have effectively ended the generational cycle of poverty and homelessness for themselves and their children.”
As a member of Endow-A-Home’s advisory board, he helped raise nearly $1 million, which purchased homes and provided the case management services that have helped formerly homeless mothers become self-supporting homeowners. His support has helped 91 women begin the road to self-sufficiency; 21 have realized their dream of home ownership.
“He always could tell a good story. His stories would convince people to help us,” Brooks said. “And when people did help us, he’d say ‘We hit the mother lode.’ He liked that play on words.”
Purchasing homes for Endow-A-Home families to live in while they worked toward self-reliance “made real sense to him,” Brooks said. “He was the man behind the scenes that made this dream happen. He was such a grand guy, with such a fine, generous spirit.”
Born in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, Murray served two years in the U.S. Air Force in Phoenix, Ariz., and earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial psychology from Yale University. He became expert in the emerging field of computer technology, working at Michigan Bell and Drexel Harriman Ripley. He became president of two corporations: the Stock Clearing Corporation of Philadelphia and the Depository Trust Company of Philadelphia.
He is survived by his wife, Pixie, two sons, and four grandchildren.
