Sgt. Jeremy Murray

(reprinted from Cleveland.com, November 19, 2005)

Marine ‘a remarkable man,’ was loving husband, father

Saturday, November 19, 2005
Emily Hamlin
Plain Dealer Reporter
As soon as the Marine walked in her door, Pam Ferringer said she knew he was the man her daughter would marry.

Sgt. Jeremy Murray of Atwater Township was respectful, charming and intelligent – and the way he and Ferringer’s daughter, Megan, looked at each other left little doubt.

“It was obvious,” said Pam Ferringer of Ravenna. “He was the one.”

Six months later – after he asked the Ferringers’ permission, of course – Murray proposed.

“He was a class act, a truly remarkable man,” Ferringer said.

Murray, 27, was killed Wednesday in Iraq when his Humvee hit a roadside explo sive device. He was a member of the “Thundering Third” 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment in Camp Pendleton, Calif., and on his third tour of duty in Iraq.

He graduated in 1996 from Waterloo High School in Atwater Township, about 20 miles east of Akron. He first enlisted in the Army and joined the Marines a short time later.

Ferringer said her daughter and Murray had been inseparable since they met at the Portage County Fair more than six years ago. Even after he was deployed, they were in almost constant contact through e-mail and telephone calls, she said.

The Murrays celebrated their fifth anniversary Oct. 21 and have a 5-year-old son, Ian.