CHARLES MURDOCK

Farmer was fan of area sports

BY KAREN AYRES, BLADE STAFF WRITER

LIBERTY CENTER - Charles R. Murdock, a self-employed farmer who loved sports, fishing, and hunting, died Friday from injuries he suffered when he fell from a combine two weeks ago. He was 93.

A native of Liberty Center, Mr. Murdock graduated from the town high school in 1923. He was a baker for about seven years before he married Gertrude Whiteman, who died in 1987.

In 1930, Mr. Murdock began helping his father-in-law take care of cattle on the family farm. He worked there until his mid-70s, said his sister, Lucille McTary.

"He loved farming," she said. "Even recently, he liked to look at the crops on the farm."

Mr. Murdock followed Liberty Center sports, including football and baseball. He liked to go to Canada to fish and hunt.

"He would always go to the games if he could stand the weather," Mrs. McTary said. "And he always had an answer for anything anybody ever said."

Mr. Murdock socialized with people in surrounding towns as well, she said. "We never went anywhere where somebody didn't know him," Mrs. McTary said.

Mr. Murdock was healthy for most of his life and only became ill after his fall, she said.

Surviving are his sons, Richard and Herbert; sisters, Lucille McTary, Olive Keeler, and Helen McOscar; seven grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren, and a great-great-grandchild.

Visitation will be at the Liberty Chapel United Methodist Church at 10 a.m. today. A service will follow at 11 a.m.

The family requests tributes be sent to the Liberty Center fire and rescue squad.