William Murrie started as a traveling salesman and ended up transforming Hershey’s future. This episode is a powerful reminder that grit, vision, and execution can build empires—one bar at a time.
Welcome to this special bonus episode of Deeply Driven, today we profile that of William Murrie, the longtime president of Hershey’s.
Before Hershey’s became a household name and one of America’s most iconic chocolate companies, it needed someone who could turn Milton Hershey’s visionary ideas into reality. That man was William Murrie.
A former telegraph operator, semi-pro baseball player, and traveling candy salesman, Murrie first crossed paths with Milton Hershey in a Lancaster billiards hall. With charm and confidence, he famously boasted he could sell more chocolate than Hershey could manufacture. Hershey called his bluff—and within a year, Murrie had done exactly that. Impressed, Hershey brought him off the road and made him general manager. Murrie would remain at the helm for over five decades, eventually becoming president of the company and transforming it into a modern, diversified, nationwide powerhouse.
In this episode, we explore how Murrie quietly yet powerfully shaped the Hershey empire. He was the implementer to Hershey’s inventor, the operator behind the dream. Under his watch, annual sales exploded from $600,000 to over $120 million. He introduced legendary products like Mr. Goodbar, Hershey’s Kisses, and chocolate syrup. He built out the company’s first national distribution channels and oversaw crucial wartime efforts—including convincing Congress not to shut down the candy industry during WWII.
Murrie was known for frugality, discipline, and a keen eye for product development. But perhaps his greatest strength was his ability to expand without compromising the company’s values. He forged critical partnerships—including supplying bulk chocolate to Frank Mars in the early days—and anticipated consumer trends decades before the market caught up.
His leadership style was grounded in fiscal discipline and people management. He expected punctuality and accountability but inspired deep loyalty. When the company was at risk of collapsing during the Great Depression and the war years, it was Murrie’s tight grip on costs and his long-term thinking that carried Hershey through.
This is a story of humility, grit, and operational brilliance. While Milton Hershey may be the face on the brand, it was William Murrie who ensured that vision had a foundation strong enough to last generations.
One of their favorite stories, which they frequently shared with whoever happened to be listening was of the first time they met in a billiards hall in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. At the time, William Murray was a drummer, a traveling salesman for a confectionary wholesale firm out of Pittsburgh, a wisecrack, a teller of tales.
He regaled Hershey with stories of his past. His days as a semi-pro baseball player, a telegrapher for the Western Maryland Railroad, a railroad scab in Chicago. Hershey, admired, Murray's, gregarious, charming, nature, sole completely opposite of his own.
And when Murray bragged that he could sell more candy than Hershey's could manufacture, Hershey took him up on this Boas. Murray took the line on the road and within a year he had sold more chocolate than the plant could produce. Just as [00:01:00] promised this feat so impressed Hershey, that he invited Murray to stay in Lancaster and named him general manager and later president of the Hershey Chocolate Company for the next 50 years.
Murray remained Milton Hershey's, right hand man and trusted, confident.
This selection is from the book, emperors of Chocolate, written by Joel Glenn Brenner. Today in this bonus episode, I wanted to talk with you about the longtime president of Hershey's that of William Murray. On our last episode, you and I had a really nice conversation about Milton Hershey and we learned that he was really a visionary and he loved to experiment and create new candies.
Now, in order to do this, I. Milton really needed a strong leader at the top of his company, and he was blessed to have William Murray at his side who would run the day-to-day operations, [00:02:00] and he turned the company into a modern and professional organization, and he was really responsible for product diversification and catastrophic growth over his 50 year tenure.
He took the company from $600,000 in sales when he first started to over 120 million by the time of his retirement. I was quite impressed by as deeply driven nature as I read through the book, and I felt that we could learn some lessons from Mr. Murray for the episode today, my research comes from the book Emperors of Chocolate and also from the Hershey Community Archives.
Before we jump back in time, I just wanted to let you know that I started a free newsletter recently, and each time I finish reading a book, I'll send you the top things that I learned by reading that book. If you'd like to sign up, I'll leave a link in the show notes below, or you can simply visit deeply driven podcast.com, and then at the top of the page, [00:03:00] you'll see the newsletter tab.
Just click on that and you can sign up. It's simple and easy, and best of all, it's free. All right, with that, let's head back to 1873. William Murray was born in Pennsylvania and there's not a lot written about his early life, at least not in my research materials, but we do see at the age of 16, he starts working as a telegraph operator, and he discovers fairly quickly , that he doesn't really like that a whole lot, so he finds himself in the candy business .
He would join a small firm known as Weaver and Costello. He starts on the bottom floor, but he advances quickly and very soon he would become the top salesman of the company in his early twenties.
Now, not much time later, he would meet Milton Hershey for the first time in that billiard hall. And as you heard at the open, he claimed that he could outsell more chocolate [00:04:00] than Hershey's could possibly manufacture. And that was certainly a bold claim in Milton. Well, he took him up on that. So Murray, he would take the product line on the road within a year he had outsold more than the plant could produce.
Just as promised. From the Hershey archives, I found the following, rather than be upset. Milton saw this is a testament to Murray's abilities. Hershey declared, if this man is good enough to oversell the plant, I want him here to run the business. And Milton immediately would bring Murray in off the road and make him GM of the company.
And this is an early development that would eventually lead to a lifelong business and personal friendship between these two. Now, Hershey and Murray, they were perfect compliments in business, and I just wanted to describe for you the differences here. Milton, he [00:05:00] loved to start new things. Invent candies.
He built new businesses. He laid out his town and his factories. He was a grand planner. He had this big idea of his utopia. He really thought larger than life. And then Murray, on the other hand, was quite the opposite. He was a doer, a mover, and a shaker, and he really brought ideas to life.
Murray would handle the day-to-day operations of the company. He led sales and marketing. He set up logistics. He was responsible for establishing distribution and growing distribution into nationwide sales, , he became known as the inventors. Implementer, and that's exactly what he would be for 50 years, he really got stuff done for the company and took the company to new levels.
Now, as Murray's talents grew, he would eventually be promoted to the president of the company in 1908, [00:06:00] and this is a role that he would hold for more than 39 years during that time, Murray gained a reputation for frugality and also for punctuality. He expected everyone to show up on time and to honor their word, and it was said that he would normally arrive at the plant early and he would watch everyone come in that day making sure they were all on time.
In addition, according to the Hershey archives, Murray kept costs under tight control and was known as a tight man with a dollar. And right here, this is a valuable lesson that you and I can learn.
That in business, we must pay attention to all of our expenses, and we're gonna have times where things are good and money's flowing, and we feel like we don't really need to watch our costs because we have in excess right now. But this is when we should pay the most attention not to squander or excess [00:07:00] cash
because in business there's also gonna be those lean times, and it's during these times that that extra cash can carry us through the storm instead of having to borrow, or even worse, possibly shut down, we can weather the storm. And this reminds me. This reminds me of what we spoke about on episode one where Henry Ford was facing some mounting debt repayments for, loans that he took out to buy out his minority shareholders.
And what he did is he tightened the belt in the plant. Basically he eliminated anything that didn't involve the production of cars. He consolidated his workforce and he cut costs dramatically, he ended up paying off something like $58 million of debt. Only a manner of a couple of months I believe it was.
And he didn't have to go to the bank to borrow money to cover those difficult times. Ford [00:08:00] was extremely focused. He was focused very deeply, and he controlled his cost so that he could take care of his business needs. And this is the same focus that Murray had, and this really helped Hershey's several times, especially during the Depression and then also during World War ii.
So focus on your expenses, my friend. Don't take your eye off your finances, especially during prosperous times. That's super critical for us, and that is a super valuable lesson.
Along with controlling costs, one of Murray's main accomplishments could be seen through his business expansion and his product innovations, and I just wanted to highlight some of the things that he was responsible for. These are really the big, big ticket items and I think there's some valuable lessons in here for us in terms of product development.
At the top was the Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bar.
Murray helped to scale the [00:09:00] production of the Chocolate Bar and establish a nationwide distribution system. This made the chocolate bar mainstream in the American public, and it was also the foundation for the company in their long-term success. Now, about eight years later, they would launch the Hershey's milk Chocolate with almonds.
So pretty simple. They just added almonds, but it proved to them that they could enhance the product line by adding ingredients to it. And this kept the product fresh and it was extremely popular and kept the customers engaged and kept them consuming their products.
If we look at the Hershey's kisses, Murray would oversee improvement in the automation of the foil wrapping technology. . It was said in the book that that allowed them to dramatically scale up Hershey's KISS' production for nationwide distribution. So not only is he developing distribution for his [00:10:00] candy bars, but everything else that would go along with it.
You already have the network. So he might as well put new products into that network or ramp up products, forward distribution into the network. Murray would go on and develop the Mr. Goodbar. And this was Murray's first bar that he developed personally. He believed that the chocolate bar mixed with peanuts would be extremely popular, and he was absolutely correct in this.
Then Mr. Goodbar would become the second flagship bar for Hershey's, and it really did well all over the United States and brought in additional revenue for the company. And then from this Murray would focus on product diversification. This would come through Hershey's syrup that was introduced in 1920.
And this would be used in drinks and on dessert toppings. This really brought the Hershey's brand into people's homes and into their cupboards as they would use it for [00:11:00] cooking and beverages. , and then he would develop Hershey's chocolate chips. These were launched around 1928. And they were obviously used for baking and it allowed them to capitalize on the home baking trend at the time, and it also got 'em into those commercial bakeries, and it really helped to broaden their market share
it was this diversified strategy that really helped Hershey's become a leader in the United States candy industry. And right here, these product developments. I think these are important lessons for you and I and that in our businesses, we should keep a close eye on what our market is asking for.
Murray knew that peanuts were extremely popular with the American public, , and he could obviously see chocolate sales increasing rapidly. So he was able to combine these two ingredients and come up with the Mr. Goodbar. I.
So my friend, keep an open mind with your products and your services. Listen to your customers and to the market, [00:12:00] and let that be the driving force towards the development of new products, or a means to enhance existing ones. .
Now from this, Murray would also work on developing wholesale distribution channels, he had developed a good working relationship with a small candy company located in Chicago by the name of Mars. Frank Mars, who was the founder, would gain the trust of Murray, and I wanted to read for you how the relationship started and how it grew.
When Frank Mars was struggling in Minneapolis, it was Hershey, or more specifically William Murray who helped him out the cider. Murray met Frank when he was trying to secure a steady flow of supply for the Milky Way. He thought Frank's product might make it big, so when no other chocolate supplier would extend Mars, credit Murray gave him an account.
As Frank's company grew and became more [00:13:00] successful, so did the relationship between Mars and Hershey. In 1921, Hershey recorded sales of just 8.3 million pounds of coding By 1938, coding sales reach 8.4 million pounds a month. Thanks, in large part to Mars. William Murray saw Frank Mars not as a threat, but as one of his best customers at the height of their relationship.
Coding sales accounted for one quarter of Hershey's total chocolate output in 20% of Hershey's total sales, or about seven and a half million dollars per year every week. As many as 10 box cars loaded with 10 pound blocks of solid chocolate, left the Hershey railway station headed for Mars Chicago. That is certainly a significant amount of business and chocolate.
Holy smokes. And it was [00:14:00] thanks to Murray that he was able to expand and develop this distribution division
with what he saw was a very important customer. He didn't see them as a competitor, but he saw them as a customer and a good one at that. And as we'll see in the next episode, when we focus on the Mars family, all that would soon change in the future, if we jump forward a little bit here, we find us at the point of World War ii. In 1942, Congress had threatened to shut down the candy industry as non-essential. But Murray, he's gonna turn that around.
He's not gonna allow him to shut Hershey's down. Through his creativity and his strong leadership, he would find a silver lining to make it through. And in addition, he would be of a great service to the war efforts. And I just wanted to read you the following.
Hershey successfully fought off attempts to ration the much needed supplies like sugar, corn, syrup, and cocoa [00:15:00] beans. Pitching chocolate is a vital source of nutrition for the nation's troops. Candy production continued uninterrupted throughout the war. With more than 70% going into soldiers rations. The chief supplier, of course, was Hershey with its Ration D, ration K, and tens of cocoa by War's.
End Hershey had produced more than 1 billion candy bars for US soldiers,
and this adaptability by Murray was super critical. And this is another lesson that we can learn from Murray for you and I, that during difficult times we must remain adaptable. , When we can adjust effectively to change, it allows us to be more resilient, more relevant, and more competitive in the marketplace.
And right here, it could have been easy for the Hershey Company just to sit back and say, okay, I guess we're closed down because we're considered [00:16:00] non-essential. But. Murray would push through this, and he looked for a way to keep the company going during the war, and he provided nutrition to the troops at the same time.
Now, adaptability is key. Stay flexible, my friend, and open to learning new things and working to solve problems under pressure. This is what sets us apart in business now. It's ironic at this time. Another great creation would also develop. In August of 1939, Forrest Mars Sr. Would show up at Murray's office in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
, Forrest was the son of Frank Mars, who was the founder of Mars. And as just a brief backstory, Fort had joined his father's business, but was basically forced out in a bitter dispute in 1932. Forst wanted to pursue aggressive growth, and his father really wanted to take a more [00:17:00] methodical, slower approach.
Forst would eventually move to Europe and start his own candy company, becoming like the third or fourth largest uh, candy company in Europe within just like a five or six year timeframe. And as the war started. The British government wanted to impose a super heavy tax on foreign owned businesses, which forced just flatly refused to pay.
So he would turn his operations over to one of his most trusted managers in Britain, and he would head back to the United States. But he brought something special with him, and I'm sure you'll know exactly what it is after I read the following and how he discovered it. The original idea he said came from the battlefields of Spain while traveling through the country.
During the Spanish Civil War, Forrest saw soldiers eating chocolate lentils covered with sugary candy, protected by [00:18:00] the shell. The chocolate withstood the heat, and I think the author should have just added right here. Melts in your mouth, not in your hand.
But that creative marketing slogan would certainly come later after the product has been developed.
Like Milton Hershey for was a keen observer of others in his industry, and he also studies other industries outside of his. So that he can understand the learnings and how those could be applied to help bolster his operations. And this also aligns with what we've talked about in the past with Sam Walton and how he studied his competitors and he would implement the best ideas that he found in his business to help it grow,
Which is an incredibly valuable lesson for us as well in our businesses. Now, if we flash back to Murray's office.
After talking for some time, force would pull out his hard coated candies and present them to [00:19:00] Murray. Who would taste one and was immediately delighted. And when I read the following selection from the book, it makes me feel like I was almost in the room. During that meeting fort, pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and laid it on Murray's desk.
Take a look. Murray saw a dozen brightly colored candies. Violet, orange, yellow, red. Each about the size of a fat nickel, .
There are chocolates. Forrest declared. I've had 'em in my pocket ever since I left New York. Try one. Murray was impressed. A Hershey bar never would've withstood the chain chip. Not on a hot day like today, but forced candies didn't seem to be affected by the heat. Murray bit one open and examined the chocolate inside the thick, sugary shell.
This is brilliant. He said smiling, absolutely brilliant, and almost immediately they would strike up a deal to start production. [00:20:00] Mars would put up 80% and Hershey would put up the other 20%. Murray would go and tap his son, Bruce, to be partners with Forrest. As Murray had been grooming his son for quite some time to enter the candy business, and Forrest promised to treat Bruce like family and make sure he was involved in every step of the business.
Now it's important to note that Murray always had a very positive and friendly working relationship with Frank Mars. And he assumed that Forrest Mars would be of a similar nature now to close the deal for would say, we'll call 'em m and ms for Mars and Murray, what do you think about that?
Done. They shook hands and the operations would begin in 1940.
Murray would personally oversee the launch of the operations, and he made sure that they had all the ingredients that they needed as Hershey's had a [00:21:00] basically an unlimited supply during the war. As they were considered an essential business, Hershey's would also devote a lot of their food scientists and engineers to help them perfect the candy, and he would supply the operations with a great deal of expensive equipment to press the m and ms, and then also to wrap the candies
now in the end. For would treat Bruce Murray really bad and he would eventually leave the operation selling his stake to Mars for a million dollars.
It was really William Murray that used his expertise and was able to see that m and ms were brought to life. He was the implementer and he really drove the project forward, and he trusted that Forrest would act on his word and he saw Mars as a customer at the same time.
That would help him to expand his business through increased wholesale chocolate [00:22:00] sales.
In the end, Murray didn't go take retaliation or build any ill will against Forrest Mars, and I think that's the right lesson here and the right thing that we have to take away from this, and it's valuable for us. Then in business. We can do everything correctly. But occasionally we're gonna come across those that don't honor their word or they treat us badly, and at this point, we need to rise up.
And move past this. And this reminds me on episode two when we spoke about Ed Thorpe, where he discovers that the casinos are cheating. He doesn't seek aggressive revenge or ill will or harbor any resentments. But what he does is he digs in deeper right here, he would hire some experts to help him identify in greater detail how the casinos were cheating.
And let me just read for you how this went down. There was so much crook of dealing that I worried about playing on my [00:23:00] own in the future without an expert to watch for it and warn me off. When Mickey and Russell, those were his experts, signaled that I had been cheated.
I quit and went off with them for a lesson in how it was done. Mickey would demonstrate first slowly then at casino speed when I could see it. Or more typically infer it from what poker players called tells we would return to the same dealer and resume play briefly and for low stakes so that I could get better at spotting the crooked dealing at the table.
I saw this done with great skill at what had become my favorite strip hotel casino. So he uses this knowledge as a means to educate others through his book called Beat the Dealer, highlighting the various ways that casinos would cheat, and I think that's the correct thing to do, is to dig in deeper and understand what's going on [00:24:00] so that we can circumvent the cheating or bad business dealings.
Learn lessons from those who do you wrong so that you can apply those learnings. It'll make us stronger in the future. . But on the upside here for Murray, he would have half of his namesake on the m and ms. And these would go on to become one of the most popular candies in the world.
. I plan to cover M and MSS and how Forrest Mars Senior grew the brand. In the next episode when I talk about the Mars family, and I hope that you can join me in that discussion.
Now at this point, William Murray, he continues to run Hershey's until 1947, at which time he would retire in a private ceremony And he would hand the reins over to Percy Staples, who had been previously picked by Milton Hershey to take over the company. Once Murray had retired, he would move to New Jersey and he would live a quiet life, [00:25:00] and he would pass away in 1950 at the age of 77.
So it was Murray's leadership that was responsible for the long-term growth of Hershey's over the 50 years while he was at the head of the company. When he started as the GM in 1897, sales were 600,000. And by the time he retired, they had grown over $120 million. That is quite impressive, my friend. I think there's a lot of lessons here from William Murray and to close down the episode, I just wanted to take a few moments to reflect on the most important lessons that we learned along the way.
I believe in reflection as it helps us build deeper connections in our memory for longer term recall, , even just a few minutes can be very powerful for us.
The first lesson that we learned was that of paying attention to your expenses. Murray was known to be super tight with a dollar watching all of his [00:26:00] operational expenses. And this helped him out a great deal during the Depression and also during World War ii,
We also learned the same from Henry Ford where he controlled his expenses very tightly versus taking out bank loans so that he could replay off some of his debts and grow his company. So it's super critical, my friend. Keep an eye on your expenses, especially during the good times,
and you'll weather the storm when business might slow down a little bit. The next lesson that we learned, lesson number two, is that of product development and to keep your eye on the market. And try to identify trends. Murray had been successful in developing new products and combining popular ingredients and serving new and growing industries like the home baking needs
and distribution channels for chocolate coating with sales to Mars
and other candy manufacturers. The third lesson was to remain adaptable. When we can adjust effectively to [00:27:00] change, it allows us to be resilient, relevant, and competitive in the marketplace. And Murray had to adapt as operations, especially during World War II, so that he could provide nutrition to the troops.
I mean, he was faced with a possible shutdown. And Murray adapted and overcame this challenge by becoming a critical supplier to the armed forces. And then the fourth and final lesson here is that of not harboring resentment force. Mars would betray Hershey's in the Eminem business, and Murray didn't hold any resentments. Instead, he learned his lesson and moved forward in business.
In another example that we looked at with Ed Thorpe, when he detected car cheating in the casinos, he dug in deeper hired experts to train him on how it was done so that he could learn and educate others.
For you and I, this is important to learn from those who don't honor their words or any business bad [00:28:00] dealings, so that in the future we can spot them and navigate around them.
Making our businesses better at the end of the day.
Those were my four top lessons from this bonus episode on William Murray. I hope you like the episode. If you could just do me a quick favor and leave me some feedback, that would be greatly appreciated and it would help me out a lot. . I really enjoy making these podcasts for you, and I hope to be able to keep making them, and I'm really focused on making them better as well.
At the same time, thanks for taking the time to listen. That really means a lot to me and I hope you learned a few things along the way. Until next time, make it a beautiful day in the neighborhood, my friend.