KENDAL, Manchester — Hundreds heard yesterday how football administrator and businessman John Brandon Murray, who was murdered in Kingston last month, had touched lives through the many contributions that he made.

Murray, 48, who was shot to death in the yard of the Mayfair Hotel in St Andrew on Sunday, June 10, was showered with accolades at a service of celebration for his life held at Kendal Conference Centre in Manchester.

He was described, among other things, as one who was committed to football, his faith, and his family.

For those who knew him, his deep interest in football was spotted from his early days in preparatory school. He honed his talent as he got older and as an adult became a co-founder of Sporting Central Academy Football Club in Clarendon, and was known for rehabilitating a number of football fields.

Karl Wiggan, a beneficiary of the programme at Sporting Central, credited Murray for taking him from relative obscurity to where he is known in the local football fraternity.

“A 12 years now mi nuh cry,” he said in his tribute, while noting how that changed on June 10 when he heard of Murray’s demise.

He said that Murray instilled many virtues and life lessons in him and the others in the programme.

Wiggan said that he had been a blessing to their lives, and that Jamaica also bears a loss now that he is gone.

Brando Hayden, a childhood and school friend, said that Murray’s faith in God was a driving force in his life, about which he was very serious.

He said that while they were at Munro College together and some of the boys would be showing an interest in chapel, possibly because of the snacks afterward, Murray was different.

Jean-Claude Davidson, an elder at Transform Life Church in Kingston where Murray attended, said that there is a book that he had written on spiritual matters, and that was a demonstration of his commitment.

His friend, Pastor Christopher Morgan, said that when he made a decision to start a church in Jamaica with a similar “freshness” like the one they attended at a time in their lives when they both lived in the United States, Murray was instrumental.

Among those who gave tributes was a representative of a Bible study group called God Squad, of which Murray was a part.

Murray leaves behind wife and four children, and Morgan said that it was during his time in the United States that he decided to start a family, a time when the group of young men who were his friends there was not yet on that path.

In a tribute given during a video clip presented, his wife Marlo remembered his sense of humour, passion for football, and how he would pray for his family.

The audience heard from the remembrance that the impact which Murray had made was fuelled by the way he was raised to be part of a community.

His body will be cremated.