(April 26, 1903 – April 22, 1991) Murray Kemp was the founder and served as General Manager, President, and Chairman of Multnomah Kennel Club going back to 1933. The former track in Fairview was known as “The House That Murray Built” and was renamed Murray Kemp Kennel Club in 1978.
Kemp grew up on farms in North Dakota and found his calling with a job at Miami's historic Hialeah Racetrack. Starting out as a bookkeeper in the early 1020's Kemp learned from the visionary O.P. Smith. After Smith’s passing, Murray worked his way through the greyhound circuit at tracks in Kentucky, Illinois and California. He arrived in Portland in 1933 and began managing racing inside Multnomah Stadium. When baseball arrived in 1956, the dogs had to go. Kemp purchased the land in Fairview and one year later a new track opened with room for 18,000 fans and bettors.
MKC was the place to be for decades, peaking in the 1980s. Murray Kemp was recognized nationally for his contributions to greyhound racing, many innovations to pari-mutuel wagering, as well as providing summer employment opportunities to hundreds of young people.
Murray served twice as president of the American Greyhound Track Operators Association. In 1980, Kemp was added to the Pioneer section of the Greyhound Hall of Fame in Abilene, Kansas. He was enshrined into the Greyhound Hall of Fame section in 1983 for his contributions to the “Sport of Queens.”