Murrans, Leonard Joseph, 1997 August 28

This is a Living History interview with Leonard J. Murrans, class of 1947, conducted by Marilyn Somers on August 8, 1997 at Mr. Murrans’ home in Dunwoody, Georgia. The subject of the interview is the interviewee’s life and experiences at Georgia Tech.

Mr. Murrans was born in the Bronx, New York and grew up in Flat Bush, New York. After high school graduation, Mr. Murrans went to work for General Electric in order to be able to afford college. General Electric sent him to Stevens Institute of Technology, and he worked as a receptionist at General Electric during the day. Mr. Murrans was then transferred to the Bridgeport, Connecticut engineering group for General Electric. World War II was starting up about this time, and Mr. Murrans would always see sailors in their uniform when he traveled home on the weekends. He decided that he wanted to join the Navy himself. Mr. Murrans spent a total of sixteen months on two Navy ships during World War II, one in the North Atlantic and one in the South Pacific. After sixteen months, he was given the opportunity to join the Navy V-12 Program and attend college. Mr. Murrans originally wanted to study premed at Columbia University, but ended up studying Electrical Engineering at Tech. He enjoyed his time at Tech very much, and he was very active in Kappa Sigma fraternity. While at Tech Mr. Murrans met his wife, June, and they were married soon after his graduation. For one year after Tech, Mr. Murrans worked for George Richardson, a Tech alum he had met through Kappa Sigma. The job was fine, but it was not exactly what he wanted to do. Mr. Murrans ended up talking to a fellow Tech graduate working for Square D, who loved his job there. Mr. Murrans interviewed and started work at Square D on January 1, 1943. Mr. Murrans and June had to move often with his new job, and were often living further north than they wanted. Mr. Murrans worked at Square D for twenty-two years and eventually was able to move back to Atlanta with his family. Mr. Murrans and June have three daughters and seven grandchildren. If he could do it all over again, Mr. Murrans would have become a doctor, but he does not regret his experience at Tech in any way.