Mitterhoff, Murray (1919-2004 )

Murray Mitterhoff was born in Newark, New Jersey, on April 21, 1919, the son of Millie and Samuel Mitterhoff, a Polish-speaking Russian immigrant who worked as a commission merchant (1920) and foreman in a mattress factory (1940). He served in the Navy during World War II, and married Nettie Waranch in Macon, Georgia in 1943. Together they had two sons, Michael and Barry.

Mitterhoff lived in Irvington before moving to Springfield in 1955. He was a lithographer who owned and operated the Modern Offset Company in Newark, New Jersey, for 20 years before retiring in 1984. In his later years he enjoyed dealing in specialty books, prints, ephemera and signed limited editions (especially ornithology) from his home in Springfield, where he kept a stock of about 3,000 books along with his collection of duck decoys and minerals. Mitterhoff was also a painter, a sculptor of birds and a duck decoy carver; he edited Toiler Trader, a magazine devoted to decoy carving. He was also a member of the Audubon Society.

He died in Springfield, New Jersey, on February 1, 2004.