``The office was at first a difficult one,'' Professor George McLean Harper later noted in a biographical sketch, ``for it included discipline and the enforcement of standards of scholarship, but Dean Murray soon obtained general good will without sacrificing just severity. He had an enthusiastic, impulsive, and affectionate disposition.''
This judgment of a junior colleague corroborated the opinion of a senior one. ``For sixteen years,'' President McCosh reflected at the time of his retirement in 1888, ``I had the somewhat invidious task of looking after the morals and discipline of the College. Since that time this important work has been committed to Dean Murray, who has shown more patience than I did in the discharge of his duties. Parents may be satisfied when they know that he is looking after the best welfare of their sons.''
On Dean Murray's death in 1899, alumni gave funds for a professorship of English in his memory.
Dean Murray's son, George R. Murray, who graduated from the College in 1893, was general athletic treasurer from 1900 to 1932.