Another timely piece of lily history.
Jan de Graaff sold the Oregon Bulb Farm to Milridge, Inc. owned by another very prominent Oregon businessman named M. J. (Jack) Murdock in 1966. Mr. Murdock was the founder of Tektronix, Inc. a large developer and manufacturer of oscilloscopes being used by the Dept of Defense modern radar systems, hospital and medical labs and emerging television control rooms; sort of like the Silicon Valley of the 50's and 60's. But Jack Murdocks interests were more than just technical, He love flying and owned an aircraft distributorship and a bunch of garden supply houses. His interests included nature and flowers and with the acquisition, the Oregon Bulb Farm would become part of Milridge, Inc. Jack Murdock would continue to oversee the operations of the Oregon Bulb Farms until his untimely death in a plane crash in 1971 at the age of 54yrs. He and an associate had been flying a float plane up the Columbia river when a sudden gust of wind flipped the plane upside down. Both he and his associate survived the crash and clung to the wreckage for rescue but when it didn't come, they tried to swim ashore. His associate made it but Jack did not. His body was never recovered. It took some time for Mr. Murdock's estate to work it's way through the courts and a new manager to oversee the Oregon Bulb Farms was hired. His name was Ray Whitcomb. Ed Mc Rae was chief hybridizer/breeder at the time. Mr. Whitcomb quickly noticed that while Ed Mc Rae had made many good crosses, his record keeping of those crosses was not one of his strong points. Mr. Whitcomb quickly set out to recuit a young scientist/geneticist graduate from the east coast to clean up Ed's records and to manage all laboratory functions.
Her name was Judith Freeman.
