He also worked to make camp more inclusive and welcoming to all
As featured in Letters from Camp Magazine – Fall 2023.
Jack Murdock didn’t want to go to camp.
It was 1939 and his dad told him he was going to YMCA Camp St. Croix. He wanted to stay in town with his friends, and so he began “a campaign against camp.”
Like many such contests of will with a parent, Jack’s campaign failed.
“Needless to say, I went to camp. It was probably the best decision my dad ever made.”
Jack continued on as a camper each summer and when he was 14, became a counselor. It was 1944 and young men who would have been counselors were overseas fighting in World War II. He was on summer staff until 1953, when he left to serve as the executive director of the Midway YMCA in St. Paul.
Jack Murdock
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In 1957, Jack received an offer to return to Camp St. Croix, and he jumped at it. He began what would become an iconic, 20-year run as executive director, where he would translate his forward-thinking vision for camp into massive changes to both the physical campus and program offerings.
Jack passed away November 3, 2022, at the age of 92, leaving an unparalleled legacy of leadership at Camp St. Croix. Family, friends, and admirers held a small remembrance of Jack on July 15, 2023.
“If we’re not improving ourselves, and we’re not designing programs and doing the things that will improve for the youngsters at camp,” Jack would tell the YMCA in his later years, “then we might just as well not be in our business. I think that’s what camping is all about.”
Introducing skills progression and welcoming all
With Jack leading St. Croix, “camping became a progressive experience, as activities were retooled to provide ongoing opportunities for personal development and relationship building among campers and between campers and their counselors,” reads the YMCA of Greater St. Paul’s “150-Year Commemorative Celebration.” “Under the new system, returning campers, as they grew and matured were provided with progressively more difficult challenges. Challenges were age-appropriate and were experienced as members of small groups.”
“[Jack] built the progressive model you see in current youth development. The idea that kids learn and gain skills. That wasn’t done before Jack,” said Michel Tigan, Vice President of Camp Operations and Adventure for the YMCA of the North.
Jack also worked to make camp more inclusive and welcoming to all.
When he took over as camp director in 1957, Camp St. Croix featured significant Indian-themed programming, which wasn’t appreciated by Native Americans.
So, in 1959-60, he worked hard to refine the 20-year-old programming so that it treated cultural issues more sensitively. Working with a group called the Calumet Indian Dancers, 2 counselors, Mike Kellum and Wayne Potratz conducted research and developed activities so that, “when campers earned an eagle feather and Indian name, they understood what it was about.” As time passed into the ‘70s, it became clear that even those changes weren’t enough. Jack and other camp leaders eliminated the program altogether to avoid appropriating and demeaning indigenous cultures.
Perhaps Jack’s most significant move to bring more people to camp came in 1974 when he led Camp St. Croix to become co-ed, welcoming girls for the first time. The decision in 1974 to enroll girls at a camp that had been serving only boys for 65 years was perhaps the most highly debated and discussed program change ever implemented. reads “Voices of St. Croix,” Murdock took the position that program and staff should be fully integrated — that boys and girls should be in camp at the same time. This was a new concept in camping, and a very wise move.”
New Buildings
One could say Jack literally left his fingerprints all over camp.
During his two decades there, he oversaw several large building projects including a new dining hall in 1974 that is still in use today. The dining hall that was in place from 1954-73 had a capacity of 170. The new dining hall that Jack built had seating for 300, a reflection of the growth that camp was experiencing.
Cabins were expanded to include year-round use, and by the time the dining hall was completed in 1974, the camp could accommodate 250 people, even during the winter.
John Duntley, a subsequent executive director of Camp St. Croix shared, “Jack came along and he was all about the big picture: buildings, working with labor unions, using volunteers, acquiring neighboring properties … the [modern] footprint of camp was established during Jack’s time.”
Phil Fabel, counselor under Jack and longtime Camp St Croix volunteer added, “camp it is what it is because of Jack.”
This sentiment has echoed through the decades.
“In retrospect, the end of Jack Murdock’s 20-year tenure at camp in 1977 marked the closure of an era,” “Voices of St. Croix” said of Jack. “The idea of progressive theme camping had evolved and matured, and St. Croix’s buildings were greatly expanded and enhanced. But perhaps Jack’s greatest achievement was the development of a generation of young leaders … whose experiences at camp nurtured a deep sense of loyalty and commitment to St. Croix. All these accomplishments have become integral to the camp’s success today.”
In Remembrance
On July 15, 2023, nearly 70 friends of Camp St. Croix, as well as alumni from as far back as the 1950s, to present day staff, gathered together for a day of celebration. Part of the day was dedicated to memorializing Jack Murdock and celebrating his contributions to Camp St. Croix.
Gathered together on the newly dedicated Stu Weitzman patio, there was a lot of laughter, a few tears, and many Jack memories eagerly shared by those who loved him.
People remembered everything from his masterful bacon-cooking technique, to his passionate ability to mentor and teach young people.
Jack’s family at Camp St. Croix to honor his legacy- July 2023
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