Vale Murray Rowley

It is with a very heavy heart that I write to advise that my colleague and great friend Murray Rowley lost his battle with cancer yesterday at circa 10:30am on Monday.

Murray is survived by his wife Pam, his devoted sister Lyndal and four children including loss adjuster Mark Rowley who many of you will know.

Murray was 86 years old and was the senior partner in MBS Pumfreys Loss Adjusters which I joined as a young man in January 1982.

I in fact met Murray for the first time back in 1974 when I was a claims officer and had a report of his in respect of a major loss arising from the Australia Day 1974 Brisbane Floods. Despite being super busy, he invited me over to his office and went through the reserve step by step with me so that I fully understood the various aspects of the claim.

Within a year of joining MBS Pumfreys Murray invited me to join in him adjust a claim following a major fire at the department store Walton’s Mackay store in 1983. It was the first of many claims we worked on together with him entrusting me more, under his supervision, on each claim. It was a great learning experience for me which continued ever since.

I still have the reports on that fire in my archive, and I read the first report again this morning.

Murray encouraged me and fully supported my move to PNG for the company and was a mentor especially on the massive Bougainville Copper Claim in 1998.

Murray was the youngest ever Chartered Accountant to qualify in Australia at the age of 19. He put a lot into his profession including taking on the role as Australian Division President of the UK based Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters.

His specialty was business interruption and handled many of the world’s major mining losses for firms such as BHP and Anglo Amercian, Rio Tinto and others.

His two passions were flying and at one stage he owned two aircraft, and he piloted me on many occasions out to homestead, commercial or mining losses in Queensland. I always felt super safe with him flying as he was a stickler for risk management.

He won two major flying races. One in his class from London to Brisbane to honour the feat of aviation pioneer Sir Charles Kingford Smith and one around Queensland. From memory these were both in the 1980’s

Whether as a loss adjuster or claims preparer he always acted fairly following the principle of acting with utmost good faith which was in the code for the Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters.

When I was contemplating starting LMI he was very supportive of the move and it was he who came up with the name, Loss Management International. I was delighted when he agreed to join LMI Group over 15 years ago where he has been a great asset to the group and me personally.

He will be sadly missed by so many people, me, very much included.

I am so pleased I got to go and say goodbye to him only a few short weeks ago and he rang me last Friday to once again say goodbye. To the very end he was courageous and in positive spirits.

With his passing and that of his long-standing partner at MBS, Paul O’Sullivan two months ago, it does feel like the end of an era.

Murray’s funeral will be held at the Southport Uniting Church, Corner of Short and Scarborough Streets, Southport at 11.00am Tuesday May 6, 2025.

Rest in Peace my friend.