Winter Park philanthropist honored with award

The legacy of a beloved Winter Park philanthropist will live on thanks to an award now bearing his name.

Late Winter Park resident Kenneth Murrah was honored on Nov. 13 with the Central Florida Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Outstanding Philanthropist Award for his dedication to supporting his community and its local organizations.

The award will now be known as the Kenneth F. Murrah, Esq. Award for Outstanding Philanthropist.

The honor comes less than a month before the one-year anniversary of his death. Murrah passed away on Dec. 5, 2014 from prostate cancer. He was 81.

“It was nice that he got [the award], but it was long-term nice that it will be named for him forever,” said Ann, Murrah’s second wife.

“One of the wonderful things is that he not only gave a lot while he was alive, but he also gave endowments to a lot of organizations so that the giving could continue for a long time.”

Murrah was known throughout the Winter Park community as an advocate for the arts, education, historic preservation and much more, as well as being a kind southern gentleman from Georgia.

Murrah showed a great deal of support for the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra in its early years when he transferred two Florida Symphony endowments — the Harrison Hollander Trust and the Charlotte Julia Hollander Trust — to the orchestra. The Murrahs also made a $500,000 commitment to establishing the orchestra’s new home at The Plaza Live Theatre.

In 1986, Kenneth and his first wife, Rachel, were responsible for organizing CIVIC (Citizens Investing in the Community), a group that led the effort to get the community involved in "furnishing" the Winter Park Civic Center.

The center was dedicated to Rachel Murrah on Dec. 12, 2001.

Murrah’s nomination for the Outstanding Philanthropist Award – and its subsequent renaming – was spearheaded by the Central Florida Foundation and supported by the Winter Park Historical Association, the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, the Winter Park Public Library and Murrah’s law firm, Murrah, Doyle, Wigle & Torre.

Giving to local organizations is the most tangible way to create the community you want to live in, Ann said, especially when it comes to art.

“The arts organizations can never pay for their costs with ticket sales,” Ann said. “If we think the kind of community we want to live in is one that has a high quality professional orchestra and good art museums, then we have to be willing to support them.”

The gentleman from Georgia showed a great deal of support for the public library as well, serving on the library’s board and leaving behind $100,000 for the construction of a new library after his passing.

“He and his wife Rachel were instrumental,” Winter Park Public Library Executive Director Shawn Shaffer said. “Amongst many other things they’ve done, they started an endowment to purchase books so that we’d always have them.”

“In good times and bad we always have that endowment. Almost all of our fiction books come from that endowment…. He and Rachel recognized that the public library is the people’s university, and that access to books and information is the thing that benefits everybody.”

Murrah also served as a city commissioner, as well as the chairman of the Cornell Fine Arts Museum Board of Visitors and the president of the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce.

David Torre, who worked alongside Murrah at his law firm, noted that Murrah was the embodiment of a true philanthropist.

“Kenneth definitely believed in doing everything he could to improve his community, from just giving advice to folks to donating his own money,” Torre said.

“[The award is] a wonderful tribute to him…. People who win this award down the road are going to see that name and hopefully look him up and see his record of achievement and realize they’re in pretty good company, because I couldn’t think of anybody more deserving of that than him.”