'A true connoisseur of life': Boating community bids farewell to Murray Danzig, beloved local yachtsman

A man of the lake, a man's man, a man the ladies loved, a man who made friends everywhere he went.

Murray Danzig was a lot of things to a lot of people.

"He was 29 years old in a 90-year-old body," Danzig's good friend, Daryl Reynolds of Post Falls, said Friday. "At almost 91, he was still working on boats. Wooden boats were his love. He’d go out on the boat in the early morning with the newspaper and a cup of coffee and just drift and drink his coffee in the middle of the lake."

"He was just one of the best people I’ve ever met," Reynolds said. "And he loved his wife, Alice, so much. He called her his baby."

Danzig, 90, of Coeur d'Alene, died Thursday night after a prolonged illness.

He owned a fleet of wood boats and was always a fixture at area antique and wooden boat shows, most recently winning the Best Contemporary award at the Coeur d'Alene 2022 Antique and Classic Boat Festival for his custom, 34-foot gentleman's runabout wood boat "Jefe." The award was delivered to him in the hospital by Hagadone Marine Group and Lake Coeur d'Alene Cruises Marketing Director Cally King and marina manager Lindsey Olmstead.

"It was amazing," King said. "He was so excited."

Danzig served in the U.S. Army and was a Korean War veteran. He had three boys he loved very much — Steve, Berry and Brian — as well as five granddaughters, 11 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild, all who live in the Northwest.

Steve remembers his dad as a lifelong boating aficionado who taught him to sail when he was just 8.

"He loved his boats. Oh boy, he lived for his boats. He had five wood boats," Steve said. "Coeur d’Alene meant everything to him. He called it his lake, his city."

Capt. David Kilmer of Hagadone Marine Group said Murray was a dear friend who had a lifetime appreciation for good boats and for sharing that passion with others.

"He had that quality most essential as a wood boat owner and a true connoisseur of life — the ability to see past the practical and to savor the impractical joys instead," Kilmer said. "He was the consummate yachtsman, always with a dashing look and a good story to share. He will be greatly missed."

King described Murray as a charming character whose antics were legendary.

"There is no doubt Murray made the world a better place just by being in it," she said. "Everybody in the Coeur d'Alene community feels that way, too. How a person makes somebody feel says a lot about them. Murray made people feel special on his entire journey, especially his journey in the boating community."