By Cecilia Wheeler Barbara Murray, the Managing Editor of the Sea Cliff Bulletin since 2009, has handed in her red pen and retired from the volunteer position of producing the quarterly publication that we have all come to depend on for updates from the Mayor to photos of the Little League. The key word in that sentence is volunteer! Yes, unbeknownst to most of us, she did that unpaid job out of her love for the Village of Sea Cliff and her desire to do more than her paid part-time job as Deputy Court Clerk.
Four times a year she worked a few hours everyday, for 3 to 4 weeks, to get the eight page Bulletin ready for the printer. It was a daunting job dealing with dozens and dozens of submissions, sending out notices, tracking down photos, figuring out headlines copy editing, editing for content and space, reminding all of us to meet our deadlines, and ever-so-gently making suggestions about grammar or catching typos! Articles routinely landed in her Inbox from the Mayor, the Board of Trustees, Village staff members, churches and dozens of organizations. And members of the Bulletin staff also interviewed and wrote articles about the owners of new stores and restaurants so that we could all read about the businesses that were arriving in town. Fortunately she had a loyal group of writers and photographers who helped with each issue including her husband Frank, her daughter Meaghan, Margie Malone, Dan Maddock, Carol Griffin and Suzanne Bohn.
After 7 years as Managing Editor and 5 years on the staff prior to that, she has devoted untold hours to making the Sea Cliff Bulletin a must read and there is no doubt that her shoes will be very hard to fill! When asked about the Bulletin and all of her hard work Barbara modestly said, “It was a labor of love for myself and my staff and we enjoyed creating each issue.”
Barbara and her talents will be sorely missed by everyone in Sea Cliff. She was the perfect Manager - always willing to help, never critical, wrestling with space and placement to get every article included, patiently weeding through hundreds of photos, replying to all of the emails that flooded in as the deadline approached each quarter and always pulling everything together in time to meet that relentless deadline!
Now Barbara and Frank with be splitting their time between their new condo in Bayside and their home in Florida with lots of trips back to Sea Cliff to visit all of the good friends they have made over the years. Thanks for everything Barbara, from all of us in Sea Cliff!