Allen E. Murray, 73; Former Chief Executive of Mobil Corp.

Allen E. Murray, the chairman and chief executive of Mobil Corp. from 1985 to 1994, has died. He was 73.

Murray died Aug. 11 of a heart attack in San Diego during a trip to California, said his son, Allen R. Murray.

Murray, who lived in Syosset, N.Y., assumed control of Mobil when it was the third-largest company in the nation. He was credited with refocusing the company, now part of Exxon Mobil Corp., after a string of investments, including the acquisition of the Montgomery Ward department store chain.

“He was very hands-on, very street-savvy,” said Lucio Noto, who succeeded Murray as chairman and chief executive in 1994.

“If you did something right, he had the courtesy to call and tell you so, and if you did something not so right, he had the plain sense to call and let you know about that too,” Noto said.

Murray unloaded the department store chain, along with Container Corp. of America, a paperboard and packaging products company, at a “very good value to shareholders,” Noto said.

At the time, both companies had weak earnings and were disappointing Mobil’s investors.

Raised in New York City, Murray began working as a mailroom clerk at the New York office of Gulf Oil in 1949.

He left Gulf after being passed over for a training program and joined the accounting department at Mobil.

Before becoming chairman, Murray negotiated Middle East oil contracts and ran the unit responsible for Mobil’s Indonesian businesses. He was promoted to president and chief operating officer in 1984.

In an interview that year, Murray said he excelled at a company where “shrinking violets would have a little difficulty.”

As chairman, he spoke out on controversial issues, such as supporting Arab countries when they came under criticism.

Besides his son, Murray is survived by his wife, Patricia; his daughters, Marilyn Murray, Eileen Murray, Allison Morris and Ellen Allen; and 10 grandchildren.