Ray Murphy Valley Chamber Executive Director Gets Down To Business With Sense Of Humor

FOR THE RECORD: May 8, 1996 CORRECTION: In an April 29 profile of Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Ray Murphy, the description of the final version of chamber-backed school-related legislation signed into law by Washington Gov. Mike Lowry is incorrect. Some items mentioned as having been passed had been removed from the final legislation. According to state Rep. Mark Sterk, R-Spokane, the final version of the bill allows for the automatic suspension of students who assault school staff members. It also allows schools to bar suspended students from class in cases in which the suspensions are being appealed.

When asked why he initially pursued his job as executive director of the Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce, Ray Murphy whips out a David-Letterman-style top 10 list someone sent him via e-mail.

“No. 7, Keeps you from having to find a real job,” Murphy reads aloud with a laugh. It’s funny, because Murphy’s results in the 20 months he’s been with the Valley Chamber certainly qualify as real-job performance.

Membership has gone up from about 500 to 622. A major piece of Chamber-sponsored legislation - allowing school districts to require uniforms and set grooming standards - was signed by Gov. Mike Lowry in April. Morale in general has shot way up, thanks largely to Murphy’s charisma and down-to-earth people skills.

“He has an exceptional way of getting people to express themselves, getting them at the table,” says Terry Lynch, longtime member and president-elect of the Chamber. “We all have to work together and Ray is the guy to (make us) do that.”

Murphy can talk about almost any subject with a bottom-line, common-folk demeanor that people seem to trust. “What you see is what you get,” says Murphy, 51.

A look at his record implies that it must work.

After his first job as an accountant with Ore-Ida, Murphy returned to his alma matter, the University of Idaho, as assistant athletic director for development. During his run from 1976 to 1985, he upped the department’s annual fund-raising haul from $60,000 to $450,000.

He was later courted by D.A. Davidson, and left UI to work as a stockbroker. A few years later, when the Moscow Chamber of Commerce was looking for an executive director, Murphy applied for the job.

The Chamber was $35,000 in the hole. Murphy was determined to dig it out.

“When he came, he took on a big challenge because the Chamber was severely in the red,” says Debbie Turpen, a Moscow business owner who was Chamber president at the time. “He managed to turn that around.”

Always ready to stitch-up a new patient, Murphy left the Chamber once his financial surgery there succeeded.

“It was a fun challenge, but once it was attained, I found it hard to stay real motivated,” Murphy remembers.

He left to become campaign finance director for Republican congressional hopeful Ron McMurray. Although McMurray lost the 1994 primary to Helen Chenoweth, Murphy looks on the bright side.

“We lost, but we raised the most money.”

After the campaign, he decided to step back and take a look at what, out of all the positions he had held, brought him the most joy. Murphy applied for the job vacated by retiring 20-year Valley Chamber Executive Director Kay Moland.

After starting in October 1994, he didn’t waste any time. The Chamber immediately kicked off a membership push that is still underway. Murphy wants another 130 members.

The secret to recruitment, he says, is really pretty obvious.

“You ask ‘em,” Murphy says matter-of-factly.

Many business owners really didn’t know about the Valley Chamber, he says. They just needed someone to arrive on their doorstep who could sell the organization.

If anyone can do that, it’s Murphy. He freely admits it - he’s a ham.

The monthly Business Connections Breakfast, a good idea that had gotten a bit tired, received an enthusiasm injection by Murphy’s microphone routine.

Murphy goes out into the crowd and introduces new Chamber members with comedic patter.

“I figured I could lighten them up and have fun with them,” he says. “I never met a microphone I didn’t like.”

Now attendance at the breakfasts, which had plateaued before Murphy arrived, has doubled.

Perhaps the biggest coup for the Chamber was the April signing of a bill drafted by its education committee and introduced by state Rep. Mark Sterk. The bill allows school districts to enforce dress and grooming codes, allows for uniforms in public schools and allows teachers greater freedom to take attendance into account when grading.

Lowry line-item-vetoed a part of the bill giving districts the right to deny enrollment to known gang members, but Murphy says the Chamber will push for that again come next legislative session.

Nonetheless, it’s a big victory.

“(Murphy) has been really instrumental in pushing this,” said Frank Tombari, Chamber member and commercial vice president of Farmers & Merchants Bank. Now that the Valley Chamber has a new sense of potency, Tombari thinks reason No. 11 that Murphy should stick around is no joke: Murphy’s enthusiasm is contagious.

“We’ve got a little success,” Tombari says. “Now we’re hungrier.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo