Senior District Judge Herbert F. Murray was born in Waltham, Massachusetts on December 29, 1923.  Judge Murray was studying for his B.A. at Yale University when World War II broke out, and he decided to enter military service.  Flying thirty-six missions as an officer in the Army Air Corps, Judge Murray earned a Distinguished Flying Cross and an air medal with three oakleaf clusters for his exceptional service.  At war’s end, Judge Murray completed his degree cum laude at Yale in 1947 and received an LL.B. from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1951.

After graduating, Judge Murray served as a law clerk to the Honorable Judge William Calvin Chesnut and later as an assistant US Attorney of the District of Maryland from 1954 to 1956.  In 1956, he entered private practice with the firm Clarke, Smith, & Prendergast, where he worked until his appointment as Judge of the District Court of the District of Maryland by President Richard Nixon in 1971.  Judge Murray attained senior status in 1988 and served until his death in 1999.

Admitted to the Maryland Bar in 1951, Judge Murray was also a member of the Federal Bar Association and the 4th Judicial Conference.  He was known his patronage of the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Walters Art Gallery.