Ralph Victor Murray1897 – 1991Ralph Victor Murray was born on June 27, 1897, in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. Raised in Fredericton and Campbellton, Ralph was living in Campbellton when he witnessed this whole town burn to the ground in 1910. After studying at Rothesay Academy, Ralph left school at the age of 15 to help support his mother and sisters when his father passed away. He joined the Canadian Expeditionary Forces at age 18 and served during World War 1 in England until he was stricken with Diphtheria and transferred to Halifax. He was walking to work on December 16, 1917, when the great explosion of Halifax took place.After leaving military service, he traveled and worked in Canada and the United States until he ended up in San Francisco. While there he heard the California Highway Division was hiring, so he took the test and was hired as a surveyor. From 1923 to 1924 Murray surveyed Highway One (The Big Sur Highway) between Santa Maria and Carmel. When Murray retired from the State of California in 1940, he took up oil painting. Specializing in landscapes and seascapes, he was mostly self-taught, in addition to some private lessons from renowned Carmel Art Association Artist Members Burton Boundey and Abel Warshawsky. He was juried into CAA himself as a lifetime member that same year. In 1941 Murray won 2nd Place in the Santa Cruz County Fair. Between 1940 and 1960 Murray frequently exhibited at the CAA and across Northern California, in addition to invitations to install works in Wells Fargo Bank, Cal Am Water Company, Monterey Savings and Loan, Pacific Gas and Electric, and numerous other businesses on the Monterey Peninsula. Murray was featured in the Monterey Peninsula Herald, Los Angeles Times, Monterey Life, and the California Art Review. He is listed in Artists in California by William R. Davenport and Edan Hughes; Artists In California, 1786-1940; Artist of the American West; The Artist's Bluebook; Carmel Art Association: A History by Betty Hoag McGlynn; Art & Artists of the Monterey Peninsula; and Carmel Art Association’s 75th Anniversary Exhibition Catalog. Ralph Murray’s friends and distinguished artist peers included Frank Meyers, Myron Oliver, Armin Hansen, Arthur Hill Gilbert, and Leslie Emery. He continued to paint and sell his work until shortly before his death in Monterey on February 21, 1991.