Eva Murray

Eva Murray, also known as Eve (Monroe Meltzer) Murray

Born February 25,1964, while Cassius Clay bests Sonny Liston with a technical knockout.

1960’s Spent preschool years listening to my dad practice Scarlatti sonatas.

1975-76 Was absent for 62 random days from the 6th grade, mainly because I hated the school. Most of those hooky-playing days were spent reading The Best Loved Poems of the American People, the Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology, and medical encyclopedias. Kept up excellent grades nonetheless.

1981 Graduated Hunter College High School as an 11^th grader. At 4:00 a.m. the next morning I left that city for good. Only things I ever missed were the Great Bridge and pizza by the slice. Moved into a tent, then my grandmother’s in South Thomaston, Maine, then a truck camper. Did not begin college until September, 1982.

1981-82 Hitchhiked to work every morning at the Port Clyde Foods sardine cannery and other exciting employment opportunities in Rockland, Maine, a small city which at that time faced some considerable economic hardship. Little old ladies warned me against getting off the Greyhound Bus in Rockland on account of motorcycle gangs.

Learned how to build wooden lobster traps just as most lobstermen were going over to the use of wire traps instead. This appears to have been the beginning of a lifelong career pattern.

1983 Joined the Woodsman Team at the University of Maine, Orono, Maine; competed as a team member in old-style historic logging skills contests in Maine and New Brunswick. This is as close as I ever got to sports. Took six courses in elementary education and audited three in forestry that semester, which entitled me to hang on to one end of a two-person crosscut saw. In those days most female UMO education students, preparing to be teachers, wore heels, stockings, and makeup, whereas most female UMO forestry students wore blue work shirts, red suspenders, and steel-toed boots. I couldn’t afford the steel-toed boots, but swore I’d get them someday.

1985 Graduated Bates College, BA Religion, departmental honors, Phi Beta Kappa, completed the degree in three years. Also completed the requirements for State of Maine elementary teacher certification. Found it is usually best not to mention teaching school and having a degree in religion in the same sentence.

1985 Student teaching (required practicum) at Rockport Elementary, Rockport, Maine, in a 1^st grade classroom. My mentor teacher told me she thought I’d do well teaching middle school.

1985-87 Lived in a two-room “camp” (cabin) with wood heat only and no plumbing. Enjoyed it tremendously except for the particularly large spiders that moved in around first frost, and occasionally needing to put the tire chains on to drive out to the mailbox. Learned why, in the old days, folks often slept with hats on.

1986-87 Employed at Passmore Lumber, which became E.C. Hart Lumber, Rockport, Maine, in the hardware store, stock receiving area, and lumberyard. Also in the mid-1980’s worked as a substitute teacher, kept books, caught lobsters, set tile, sold typewriters, washed dishes, fried clams, served beer, delivered firewood, collected trash, and cooked a great many breakfasts.

1987 Took a day off from the lumberyard to sit for the LSAT without preparation of any kind, largely because I was hungry; was accepted to several schools including Northeastern University Law School.

Deferred my enrollment at Northeastern to accept the position teaching one-room school on Matinicus Island for the 1987-88 academic year. Moved to Matinicus in August aboard the passenger vessel Mary & Donna.

1988 After a year on Matinicus, and realizing I probably couldn’t handle the debt, the city life, or the dress code, I contacted Northeastern University and let them know I wouldn’t be showing up for law school after all.

1989  Became engaged to Paul Murray in January. Paul and I married in September, 1989 at a regular Sunday Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Rockport, Maine. I made my traditional white wedding dress; the lace trim was handmade by Paul’s mother. My mother made the cake, which was chocolate. Music was provided by our friends Marytha, Sue, David, Richard and Michael (known around here as “The Musicians”) who played “Hole in the Wall” on the hammered dulcimer; by Percy and the Kitchen Stompers; by Scott the diesel mechanic from Spruce Head Marine who played “The Mary L. McKay,” and by the rock band guys from Eastern Sheet Metal.

1990 Eric Murray born. I wrote a lot of poetry. Page Burr began to teach me calculus.

1992 Emily Murray born. Grew a lot of vegetables. We fed both babies for about two years on homemade minestrone hash.

1994 Became a Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician.

1990’s Served as elected Municipal Clerk, Matinicus Isle Plt.

1999-2006  Home-schooled Eric and Emily. Life was quickly filled with math books, do-it-yourself wiring projects and the ever-present query, “Does this count as school?” In 2005 had the Maine license plate “QDRATIC.”

1999-2007 Served as School District Bookkeeper for MSAD 65.

~2001-2007 Served as elected Municipal Treasurer, Matinicus Isle Plt.

~1998-2011 Served as Non-transporting Service representative to Region 6 (Mid-coast) Emergency Medical Services Council until that board was absorbed into Atlantic Partners EMS and the position disappeared.

2003-present Currently serve as the Matinicus Island representative to the Maine Islands Coalition, a board which meets quarterly with legislators, scientists, and other professionals to discuss issues of concern to Maine's island residents.

2003-2007 Wrote a regular column for The Journal of Maine EMS, until this magazine for Maine emergency medical responders ceased publication.

2004 Started Matinicus Island’s recycling program. I still serve as coordinator, general volunteer, and truck driver. The program is evolving toward a more complete solid waste management system for this isolated island community.

2004 Began contributing a regular column called “From the Edge” to the Village Soup, later called the Knox County Times and then the Herald Gazette (a Rockland, Maine area newspaper). This op-ed page column ran bi-weekly for 4½ years until 2008 when the newspaper merged with another.

2006 Was invited to contribute regular column called “A Letter from Matinicus” in Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors magazine. My essays took the place of John Gould’s usual contribution, “A Letter from Home,” after he died, a particular honor for which I feel especially grateful.

Began to contribute op-ed pieces from time to time to the Lewiston Sun Journal.

Began to contribute frequently to The Working Waterfront.

Began service as Matinicus Plantation’s volunteer Emergency Management Director.

2007 Was invited to begin a regular column (which they unfortunately insisted upon calling a “blog”) for Down East magazine’s website. “Sea Glass and Scrap Iron” ran for 3 ½ years until summer 2010.

2009 Began a monthly column called “From Offshore” in the Rockland Free Press; this column is now bi-weekly.

2010 Elected to RSU #65 School Board, Matinicus Island.

2010 Publication in July of my first book, Well Out to Sea—Year-round on Matinicus Island, by Tilbury House Publishers, Gardiner, Maine.

2010 Joined the Maine Public Broadcasting WCBB Community Advisory Board.

2011 Wrote the biweekly column “Water and Power” for the Rockland Herald-Gazette, until that newspaper went defunct suddenly in March of 2012.

2012 Began the column “Land of the Free, Home of the Brave” in the Islesboro Island News.

Began the column "Industrial Arts" for the online newspaper The  Penobscot Bay Pilot.

Began service as the Matinicus Island representative to the Maine State Ferry Service Advisory Board.

2012 Publication in September of my second book, Island Schoolhouse--One room for all, by Tilbury House Publishers.

2013 Joined Midcoast Search and Rescue (SAR)

2013 At the annual Fishermen's Forum trade show, was invited to begin a column for the newspaper The Fishermen's Voice. This became "Out Here in the Real World."

August 2013  First performance of On the Edge, a one-actor play--more like a monologue--about Maine's island commercial fishing communities. On the Edge was performed twice in Northeast Harbor, Maine, with Dennis Damon as "the Islander," paintings by Philip Steel as the set, and music by Steve Romanoff.

April 2014 Joined the amateur radio community as KC1BBH

July 2014 First local solo in an airplane and "shirt-tail ceremony," Belfast, Maine.

October 2014  Passed written, physical, land navigation and other practical exams to become a certified Search and Rescue volunteer.

May, 2015  Island Birthday, my first book for children, is published by Tilbury House.

December, 2015  Completed a Graduate Certificate in Gifted/Talented Education through the University of Maine (UMF).

April, 2016   Island Birthday awarded Maine Library Association's Lupine Award for children's book

June, 2016  Matinicus Island Rescue is officially disbanded due to lack of membership, although I remain licensed as an Emergency Medical Technician.

August 18, 2016 Passed my Private Pilot (Airplane Single Engine Land) checkride in Bangor, Maine, with examiner Tim Hodgkins.

October, 2016  Received Maine Press Association's First Place award for Local Column.

2016 Joined Waldo County Search and Rescue.

I have a Class B (any single-unit truck) license with hazardous materials and tank endorsements, have a Transportation Worker’s Identifying Credential, and I am a certified teacher for grades K-8. That all means I have been fingerprinted quite a few times without ever having interacted with the criminal justice system. I am a Notary Public, a Wilderness First Responder, a CPR instructor, and a licensed pilot.  During the summer months I operate a small bakery on Matinicus Island.