BY ALISON GRANITO
Staff Writer
RED BANK — T.C. Murray has come a long way for a kid from Hell’s Kitchen.
Although his story starts in what was then a rough and tumble neighborhood in New York City, Murray, 69, is now a retired Catholic school history teacher who pursues his writing career from his Red Bank home.
Murray’s latest work, "The Spirit of ’69," is a volume of poetry which contains many works inspired by the history he got to know so well — particularly the events of 1969, which served as a watershed year for him.
"People have asked me, ‘Why ‘The Spirit of ’69’?" Murray said during his introduction to the premier reading of selected poems from his book at the Red Bank Public Library on Saturday.
In addition to Woodstock and Vietnam, Murray points to increasing activity in the women’s rights and gay rights movements on a national scale.
The times were also changing closer to home in New Jersey that April, he said.
"You had the first strike in any Catholic school system in the U.S. I led that strike," Murray, who taught at Essex Catholic High School, Newark, from 1958 to 1976, said.
With history changing around him, his nascent career as a union organizer prompted his metamorphosis from arch conservative to feisty liberal.
"That year was a catalyst for change in my life," Murray said.
Comfortable in his role as a rabble-rouser, Murray continued to stir things up as a history teacher at Mater Dei High School, Middletown, from 1976 to 1996. He also took some time out to publish a book, "The Seven Wonders of New Jersey."
Although Murray tackled nonfiction back in 1980, he did not begin writing poetry until 1994 at the urging of his former student and close friend Robert J. Batz Jr.
The anthology is dedicated to Batz, who passed away at the age of 30 last year.
As a teacher, Murray inspired fierce devotion among his students and keeps tabs on many people he taught at both Essex Catholic and Mater Dei.
"He brings a passion and a spirit to everything he does," Ian Rooney, a Belford resident who had Murray as a teacher at Mater Dei, said after the Red Bank reading.
"With Mr. Murray, you know to expect the unexpected," he added.
"The Spirit of ’69" was published in November by Seraph Productions.