By Kathleen Cunningham
Henry with our present Board Chair, Dave Brown. Photo Credit: Kathy Cunningham.
In late May of this year, the Society mourned the passing of one its great leaders, Henry L. Murray, who died peacefully at home at the age of 94. I took this photo of Henry with our present Board Chair, Dave Brown, on April 5th for the ribbon cutting ceremony for the East Hampton Satellite Emergency Department, an offshoot of one of the first projects on which I was to work with him as Executive Director of the Village Preservation Society. It was a shock to learn we’d lost him so soon after celebrating the launch of that terrific asset for our community.
Among his other community service roles, Henry was a Trustee and Chairman and President of the Village Preservation Society of East Hampton. Through a survey of the VPSEH membership in 1997, inspired by the late Lawrence S. Munson, one of Henry’s VPSEH colleagues, we learned the greatest concern for our members was the lack of available, quality healthcare in the Town of East Hampton. The late Dr. Jerome DeCosse another VPSEH Trustee supported this effort and joined Henry, Larry and another powerhouse, VPSEH Trustee the late Jack Kennedy to initiate the East Hampton Healthcare Foundation in 1998. These four men were the nucleus of the EHHF effort with its mission of “improving the quality and availability of healthcare for all citizens of the Town of East Hampton, including the uninsured and underinsured, with one standard of care for all.” Henry served as the Foundation’s Chairman from 2002 to 2023 and was instrumental in the establishment of the East Hampton Healthcare Center, the Urgent Care Center and the East Hampton Satellite Emergency Department and his particular leadership was instrumental to its success.
He was intelligent, hardworking, clear-eyed, patriotic and had a strong moral compass. Though he brooked no foolishness, he had a good sense of humor, and a warm heart. Clearly a loss to his family, his passing leaves a hole in the community as well. Our condolences to his wife Martha and children and grandchildren.