| Tim Murray Author of the Memoirs of a Texan trilogy |
| Mail Address: 16815 Pinemoor Way Houston, Texas 77058-2311 Telephone No: (281)488-8090 Email Address: tim@memoirsofatexan.com |
Tim & Jeanie Murray Saturday, October 25, 2008 Took too long to find her, but worth the wait. An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels The heart of her husband trusts in her And he will have not lack of gain. Proverbs 31:10-11 |
| Authors should write about what they know and like. For me it is history and historic fiction. I would have been a historian if I could have found a way to make a living doing it. Or, maybe, the Flying Dutchman seeking a final passion to calm his troubled soul. It all comes together in the Memoirs of a Texan saga. What would it have been like if I had been born one hundred years earlier, fought in the Civil War, came to Texas, and built a financial empire? Jim Cobb is not I but whom I would like to be - kind, brave, resourceful, analytical, and, most of all, successful. Other fictional charac- ters in the story are drawn from individuals I have known. I knew the central character should be an aide to A P Hill when I learned that Generals Lee and Jackson called out to Hill in their dying delirium. Hill must have been significant to them and to the Army of Northern Virginia and the Confederacy. His aide would have an inside and high level position to view the Civil War. Anne Cobb is how I remember my mother - attractive, vivacious, kind, and can do. Come to think of it, like my wife also. After my father, the model for John Cobb, died, Mother married William E McCray, Lafayette (formerly Vermilionville as in the novel), Louisiana psychiatrist. I did not change Bill McCray's name in the story. Tom Cobb is an easy transition from my brother, Tom Murray, who left home early to attend the Naval Academy and has retired as a Navy Captain and former submarine commander. The characters of John Blaylock, Ned Savage, and Doss Williford are drawn from remembrances of my great grandfather, James McBee, a wiry, tough man with limited education and a keen mind. Great Uncle Cap Blaylock is the prototype for the cowboys and oil field workers. Margaret, Sissy, and MIssy Morgan, Martha Blaylock, and Sara McBee are composites of women I have known and loved over a lifetime of joy and fascination. Cobb, Blaylock, McBee, Gerlach, Savage, and McCray are family names of close and distant relatives. I originally wrote the story in third person omniscient - the writer describes what everyone is doing, thinking, and observing. It is the writing style of the great historic fiction writers including Michener, Follett, and Rutherfurd. I soon learned that only established writers are allowed to write in third person omniscient. Not amateurs, like me, who are hammered for Point of View. I gave up and switched to first person narrative which I came to like. That left the problem of historic and Northern perspective which led to the fictional characters Sam Payne, New York Herald reporter, and his father-in-law, William Allen, history professor at George Washington College. Real persons - John Brown, Francis Smith, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Thomas (Stonewall) Jackson, Dorsey Pender, A P Hill, Jubal Early, Horace Greeley, John Mosby, William Mahone, James Hogg, Charles Culbertson, Ashbel Smith, Edward House, and Decimus et Ultimus Barziza are portrayed as I found them in historic accounts. I lived four exciting years in Hickory, North Carolina. Rose quickly to Vice President of a telecommunications equipment company and about as quickly fired when the company was sold off piecemeal. In the interim, I ran for Catawba County Commissioner and served, briefly, as Democratic Party Chairman. Catawba County was a familiar home community for Jim Cobb. My first full time job out of college was staff assistant to Al Guilleau, Director of Plans for the Douglas Aircraft Division of Douglas Aircraft. Al graduated from Caltech in 1940, joined the Army Air Corps and went on to serve as an aide to General Carl A Spaatz, Strategic Air Command Europe, and retired as an Air Force Colonel. During the years I worked at Douglas Aircraft, the company went through an odd bankruptcy - choked on the high volume of incoming orders and merged with the McDonnell Corporation of St Louis, Missouri. In relaxed, private meetings, Al explained the strategic circumstances, errors, and management blunders that led to our demise. I very much liked and respected Al Guilleau and admired his ability to calmly assemble and analyze facts, draw logical conclusions, and devise alternative strategies. I projected the same relation to Jim Cobb with the fictional VMI Professor Colonel Stuart Rawlings Bradshaw at VMI and William Dorsey Pender in the Army of Northern Virginia. Some historians consider Dorsey Pender the finest officer in either army in the Civil War which is how I portrayed him. My next job was as Assistant to Eddie Chiles, Chairman and President of The Western Company, Fort Worth, Texas. I came at a fortuitous time. Conversion of the company's management system to Management by Objectives was underway. I developed many of the implementing practices and policies for the MBO system. The Western Company grew from $15 million to over $600 million annual sales in twelve years. With this experience, I have never doubted that MBO is the most effective management system for any organization. I will implement it in two startup companies - New Horizons Entertainment and Aleutian Air - when funded. In the story, Jim Cobb uses MBO practices for each company he starts. Compared with Al Guilleau, I thought Eddie Chiles more charismatic and bolder, but vainer and caught up in social standing. Like Jim Cobb's perceptions of Dorsey Pender and A P Hill. Throughout his years in Texas, Jim Cobb works for good government and improved education. These are issues I share with Jim Cobb and wish I could be as effective in pursuing them as Cobb is in the story. It is an endless struggle against entrenched self-serving Interests that profit from public indifference and ignorance. I was privileged to hear a tape recorded testimony of the mother of Ruth Beres- ford, an elderly friend. As a young girl, Ruth's mother worked as a clerk for a Galveston coffee distributor. She literally swam for her life to the second floor of a rooming house during the Great Galveston Storm of 1900 and listened to the anguished cries of the drowning outside. A variant of her story appears in the Sunshine chapter of Book Three. I lived in Galveston (beach home in Bermuda Beach) for two years and in Houston, off and on, for nearly twenty years. But, unfortunately, I never lived in nor spent much time in Beaumont and sur- rounding areas where the fictional Cobbs and Gerlachs resided. I thought for many years that I had a great grandfather who served as an officer in the Army of Northern Virginia. Turned out that was Colonel Thomas H Murray who died in North Texas, no relation. My great grandfather, Tom Reed Murray, entered the 22nd Arkansas Regiment as a Private and was demobilized a Pri- vate after the Confederate loss at Vicksburg. A great great grandfather on the other side, John Blaylock, who lived in Northern Alabama, joined the cavalry, and was field promoted from Sergeant to Lieutenant. It sounded good until further checking revealed he served in an Alabama battalion of the Union Army. May explain why the Blaylocks came to Texas after the war. Much has been written about the Civil War and post-war Texas, much of it is romanticized. The reality was that the Civil War was brutal. Armies on both sides routinely sustained 30% or higher battle casualties. Numbers that modern armies will not tolerate. The quality of medical care was poor. Many soldiers wounded in battle died. As horrific as the battle casualties were, more died of disease than wounds. The common societal denominator in frontier states, including Texas, was poverty. Grinding destitution that robbed the spirit as well as the body. I worked to include these realities in my story. The Cobbs stand out first by being educated and second by becoming wealthy. The most unbelievable character in the story is Decimus et Ultimus Barziza, a Houston attorney who defends Andy Blaylock in a murder trial. He is later elec- ted to the Texas House of Representatives representing the Houston District and makes two attempts to become House Speaker. He is one of the Texas legislators Jim works with to provide honest government. Dessie Barziza is based on a real person. I have not found post war trauma in the Civil War writings I reviewed. Yet I am certain it existed. Joel Stoup, a friend who works with veterans in the VA Office in Los Angeles, recommended Achilles in Vietnam by Johnathan Shay. Shay is a psychiatrist with extensive experience in dealing with post war trauma of Vietnam era veterans. He read Homer's Odyssey with that perspective and cites several passages dealing with post war trauma in the Trojan War. The obvious implication is that post war trauma is as old as war. Certainly, veterans of America's bloodiest war were not exempt and I include post war trauma in the lives of the veterans in my story. For fellow writers, particularly those with film scripts, visit our website http://www. makeafilm.net. We have opened film making to the public including submission of scripts for presentation in our films. Aleutian Air is more remote for most of you. But, for those seeking to travel to the Aleutian Islands or balmy Fort McMurray, Alberta, fly Aleutian Air and welcome aboard. Our logo is derived from the insignia (shoulder patch) of the Alaska Defense Command and honors the ADC Scouts, Castner's Cutthroats, who served heroically in the now all but forgotten Aleutian War when US armed forces recaptured Attu and Kiska Islands from the Japanese in World War II. To complete my resume, I have - two sons, Larry and Owen, daughter-in-law, Suzanne, a granddaughter, Adell, and grandson, Ian. In marrying Jeanie, I enjoy an expanded family of three more sons - Ronnie, Dan, and John - daughter, Cathy, seven more grandchildren - Jonathan, Dustin, Chelsea, Megan, Danny, Chris, and Jacob - complete with spouses Monte, May, and Louisa. - degrees from Denison High School (Denison, Texas); Rice University (BA, BSME); Caltech (MSAM); and UCLA (MBA) - Elder and member of Webster Presbyterian Church which includes astronauts and NASA personnel. I served as Elder of Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, California where many JPL personnel attend. I earlier served as Elder in the Woodland Hills Christian Church, Woodland Hills, California. - written one earlier book, Management by Objectives: A Systems Approach to Management, used for internal management training in The Western Company and have written another text, Startup Management Primer, to guide entrepreneurs in building a results-based management structure for their ventures after funding. - worked since 2005, part-time, as a Standardized Patient with ECFMG, Houston. We certify the clinical and spoken English skills of fourth year medical students. It is a fun and rewarding job with bright, friendly, associates. |
| The Scotsmen Tim, Son Owen Murray, Brother Captain Tom R Murray, and Cousin John McBee |
| Expanded Family Monte & Cathy Harrod, Dr Ronnie & May Slaughter, Dr Dan & Louisa Slaughter, and grandkids Megan, Chris, Danny, and Jacob |
| With This Ring Tim & Jeanie Murray |
| ECFMG Work Friends Katie Johnson, Kim Kingsbury, happy groom, Mary Randle, and Nila Davis |
| Papa's Favorite Girls Suzanne & Adell Murray |
| Tim & Jeanie Murray |
| Tim & Pastor and former General Presbyter Stewart Coffman |
| Captain Tom, Tim & Jeanie Murray |
| 1st Corinthians 13 as read by Ernest Honig, Tim's college roommate |
| Jeanie & Tim Murray, Owen & Suzanne Murray, Tom & Karen Murray, and Elaine & John McBee |
| Pre-wedding discussion with Dr Dan Slaughter, Austin based ENT |
| Traditional Studio Head Shot |
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