Eldon Murray was born on March 1, 1930 to Lawrence Gilbert Murray and Eleanor Agnes Murray
(née Hobson) in Vincennes, Indiana. Eldon was the youngest of four children born to the
couple, who had separated several months before his birth. Siblings included Rosalee,
Robertine, and George. Upon graduating from Lincoln High School in 1948, he moved to
Chicago, where he worked various jobs and, for a brief period, attended evening classes at
Northwestern University. In September 1951, Murray enlisted in the U.S. Army, then served in
Korea as a forward artillery officer. At the end of his service, he returned to Chicago and
took up a career in finance. He lived there until the mid-1950s, when he relocated to
Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
In fall 1970, Murray attended meetings of the Gay Liberation Organization, a recently
formed student organization at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, at which he met Alyn
Hess, Donna Utke, Shelia Sullivan, and others who would become close friends and allies in
the gay rights movement. In early 1971, GLO-UWM reorganized itself as the Gay Peoples Union
and emphasized its identity as a resource for the entire local community. Distancing itself
from the radical politics of the New Left, GPU adopted a politically moderate approach to
social change, emphasizing education and legal reform. The organization actively embraced
mainstream and alternative media outlets in order to educate the general public about
homosexuality. Murray edited the organization's newsletter, GPU
News, from 1971 to 1981; participated in the production of Gay Perspective, a half-hour radio program broadcast locally from 1971 to 1972;
and spoke eloquently on the topic of gay rights at numerous public events.
Following the first reported cases of AIDS in Wisconsin in the early 1980s, Murray was
instrumental in raising funds for the Milwaukee AIDS Project, which was later reorganized as
the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin. In December 1993, he founded SAGE/Milwaukee, the
first organization in Wisconsin dedicated to serving the needs of older gays, lesbians, and
bisexuals. He served as the board chair from 1993 to 2003 and represented SAGE/Milwaukee on
an advisory board to the Commissioners of the Milwaukee County Department on Aging.
Murray received local and national awards for his work in the LGBT community, such as
Pridefest Milwaukee's Stonewall Award and the Human Rights League's Cream City Brick Award.
He was elected to the Cream City Business Association's Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in
1986. In 1998, ONE Institute and the International Gay and Lesbian Archives recognized him
as one of thirty-two "pioneers of the movement."
Murray passed away on March 5, 2007, at the age of 77.
