In early 1999, Terry Murray’s husband Allen died after falling from a ladder. “The letter I received from the eye bank telling me that the sight of two people has been restored because of Allen’s gift is very precious to me,” says Terry. A retired high school art teacher, Terry has presented about the value of donation to more than 5,000 students, earning her 2007 Volunteer of the Year honors from Washington Regional Transplant Community.

Terry & Allen's Story

In early 1999, Terry Murray was putting away Christmas decorations and preparing to return to teaching her high school art class. Her teenage son was helping her husband Allen with the ladder as he climbed onto the roof to check a leak. Suddenly, she heard her son scream. She ran outside to discover her husband unconscious on the deck of their house – Allen had fallen two stories from the ladder, causing his heart to stop.

“It was very surreal,” Terry, 61, recalled of the time at the hospital. “As I was sitting with my son and daughter on either side of me holding hands, the medical team entered and the doctor said to me ‘We did everything that we could.’ My husband had passed away. I’d had breakfast with him that morning and by 4:00pm, I was a widow with two kids with no dad.

“This is when I met the folks from Washington Regional Transplant Consortium (WRTC). They asked me if my husband wanted to be an organ and tissue donor. I didn’t have to think about it. I knew he would want to help people in any way he could.”

Terry was familiar with organ donation and its impact on recipients and their families. Terry’s mother was a living donor, having donated a kidney to Terry’s brother in 1977.

“Allen was a good guy. A thousand people attended his funeral; a dozen folks told me he was their ‘best’ friend,” said Terry. The aquatic facility at Montgomery College, where Allen was the director at the time of his death, has been renamed in his honor and is now known as the Allen T. Murray Aquatic Center. “My children and I are so proud.”

As a way to honor her family members, Terry is using her talents and time as a retired teacher to talk with as many high school students as possible, both in and out of the classroom. As a WRTC volunteer, she talks about the value of being a donor and the difference donors can make in the lives of others. In the past three years, she has presented to more than 5,000 students. She also attended the 2006 Transplant Games and has served on WRTC’s Donor Family Council since 2004. In 2007, WRTC honored Terry as Volunteer of the Year.

“Allen becoming a donor is a small piece of good that came out of tragedy for our family,” she said. “The letter I received from the eye bank telling me that the sight of two people has been restored because of Allen’s gift is very precious to me.”