Doreen McMurry

Doreen Mateer McMurry, age 84, passed away November 18, 2025, at St Vincent’s Hospital in Billings, Montana. Doreen was born on July 1st, 1941, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to the late John W. Mateer and Elspeth Telfer Mateer. 

While growing up, Doreen lived in California, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. She put herself through Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio where she majored in biology and worked in research roles in various labs on the East Coast. She met Fred McMurry at Antioch College, and they married in 1965 in Palmerton, Pennsylvania and just celebrated their 60-year anniversary. Doreen earned a master’s degree from Temple University in Philadelphia while Fred attended medical school there. Fred and Doreen lived in Ft Ritchie, Maryland during Fred’s miliary service and Cleveland, Ohio during his neurosurgical fellowship. They spent 16 wonderful years living on their farm in Sunbury, Pennsylvania before moving to Billings in the early 1990s.  

Doreen was an incredible mother and dedicated much of her life to raising their three children, Susan, Howard, and Rebecca. She tirelessly supported Fred’s medical career and proudly worked as the office manager for his practice in Billings. Doreen was an active partner to Fred in the family McMurry Cattle operation in Huntley, Montana doing everything from delivering calves to the bookkeeping and finances.  

Doreen was a truly remarkable woman who was kind, generous, dependable, resilient, and fiercely independent. She was an avid reader, an excellent cook, and a talented seamstress. She loved gardening and watching the wildlife in her backyard and visits from her “grand dogs”.  She had fond memories of vacations in Sanibel, Florida, where she would walk on the beach and collect shells. We miss her greatly and could not have asked for a better wife or mother.  

Doreen is survived by her loving husband Fred; her children and their families: Susan McMurry of Newton MA and her children Ben and Grace Archer, Howard McMurry and his partner Kim Achziger of Three Forks, MT, and Rebecca McMurry and her partner Josh Conrad of Huntley, MT. No service is planned at this time.