Christopher Murray

Christopher Murray retired in 2014 as the Business Development Director for JABA (Jefferson Area Board for Aging), where he developed affordable housing for seniors. He continued that passion in 2016 developing Carlton House, a 10-room boarding house for extremely low-income persons, engineering the sale of it to Casa Alma (the Catholic Worker House) in December 2021. After 35 years in the private sector, as a product designer in the furniture manufacturing business and holder of three US patents, he ended that phase of his career starting The Children’s Furniture Co where he developed products that enable children’s day care to partner with nursing homes. His current initiative is launching a natural burial ground (or green cemetery) at his family’s Panorama Farms in Earlysville. He has a BA in English from Washington & Lee University and an MFA in furniture design from Virginia Commonwealth University. A life-long Charlottesville resident he is married with two grown children and three grandchildren.