CMEpalooza Remembers: Ron Murray

Many of you likely heard the tragic news that one of our industry’s stalwarts — Ron Murray, Ed.D, CHCP, FACEHP, MRSB, PGCE — died in a car accident last week. Ron spent nearly three decades working in CME, first as Associate Director in the Office of Continuing Medical Education at the University of Virginia for 17 years before jumping back over the pond in 2013 to work as a CE Consultant/Contractor.

Ron was a regular at the Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions annual meeting, which is where many of us saw him in February. Ron was extremely well-known and popular amongst his colleagues because of his charm, wit, and genuine interest in others. Ron was tremendously authentic – he always went out of his way to say hello to me and talk about how much he enjoyed and valued CMEpalooza.

Back in the Fall of 2016, Ron participated in one of our earliest experimental CMEpalooza sessions called Casual Conversations in CME, where we paired him with his former colleague, Jann Balmer, with the instructions to “talk about whatever you want.” While I was hoping they might get into some sort of altercation about the rights and wrongs of the Revolutionary War, they kept things far more civil and ended up discussing the challenges of joint U.S.-European accreditation and international partnerships.

Outside of this appearance, there were typically two times each year that I could count on hearing from Ron as he was one of a handful of individuals who almost always participated in CMEpalooza’s special sponsor events (he won a prize at least once that I can recall). Ironically, this is the week of our Spring sponsor event, and I’m sad that I won’t see Ron’s entries pop up in my inbox again.

Certainly, there are many in our community who knew Ron far better than I did and shared far more interesting encounters. There have been several LinkedIn threads where people have been sharing small memories, which have been heartwarming to read. Clearly, I was not alone in my assessment of Ron’s character. He will be missed.

(Note from Derek: I want to echo Scott’s sentiments above. While I never got to work directly with Ron, I was privileged to have the opportunity to talk and share a dram with him at more than one Alliance conference. It still makes me smile to remember him laughing heartily along as I regaled him with my adventures driving on the “wrong side” of the road during a family trip to the Scottish Highlands the previous summer. He was a big supporter of CMEpalooza early on and never failed to offer encouragement whenever I saw him. The world is little sadder today without him in it.)