Shattering the glass ceiling — Kate Murray tells her story

Town of Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray — the first woman elected to lead the largest township in the country — was the guest of honor at the Women’s History Month Luncheon hosted by the Sandel Senior Center on March 10.

Before an audience that filled a large conference room and included another woman who not too long ago also achieved a local first — Rockville Centre Mayor Mary Bossart — Murray was introduced by Senior Services Director Dr. Cyd Charrow, who described her as caring and compassionate.

In addition to Sandel Center members, luncheon attendees included visitors from the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Center and its Director A.U. Hogan, visitors from Maple Pointe Assisted Living, and new Police Commissioner Chuck Gennario who received a hearty round of applause when he was introduced.

When Mayor Bossart spoke, she referred to Murray as a partner in government and a wonderful leader who shoulders enormous responsibilities.

“We learn about one woman and how she got where she is now,” said Bossart, who also presented Murray with a proclamation from the Village of Rockville Centre. “This is the quiet story you wouldn’t know unless you were a relative.”

Taking to the podium after lunch was served and cleared, Murray commented that the modest women who quietly do the good work are in some ways more important than those who are elected.

Murray, the sixth of seven children in her family, said her mother and father are her role models. Her mother, who worked as a stay at home mother, started attending Nassau Community College when her youngest was 12, and ended up graduating from Columbia University. Murray said she hopes she can match her mother’s perseverance and work ethic.

Saying she was proud of her father, a conservative Republican like herself, Murray said she learned from him that it’s a man’s world. Get yourself as much education as you can, she said he told her and her three sisters (all now attorneys), “so they can’t put you down.”

Both her parents, Murray recalled, instilled in their children from an early age the idea that they weren’t good citizens until they gave back to the community. Do something, she said they told her, do something for your neighbors, your schools or your church.

“I took every queue from my father about going into public service,” said Murray, who said she knew from an early age that she wanted to go into government where she felt she could do alot of good. Describing herself as very fortunate, from day one, she said, she has been helped and encouraged by all the men she’s encountered during her career, and that she’d be remiss if she didn’t acknowledge and thank the men in her life.

Murray said her favorite constituents are the children and golden citizens she enjoys serving. “We can do alot of good,” she observed, “not just [with] the hard edges of the job like balancing budgets, but through he caring and softer side of government like providing a service such as Camp ANCHOR, the program for disabled individuals.

Murray also thanked the seniors in the room who she said struggled earlier to smooth the way for women of her generation. “We stand on the shoulders of the women who came before us,” she said.

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