Dr. William P. Murphy, Jr. 1923-2023

[Andy_Baker]

After living an impactful and inspirational life of 100 years, Dr. William P. Murphy Jr. has passed away yesterday (11/30/23).

Dr. Murphy was pivotal in helping FIRST Founder, Dean Kamen, start FIRST in 1989. He and Woodie Flowers provided inspiration and assistance as FIRST grew. As Dr. Murphy got to witness Woodie’s gift of effective communication, he created the Woodie Flowers Award, recognizing Dr. Flowers as the initial winner in 1996.

After a few years, Dr. Murphy challenged the WFA winners from '96-2003 to come up with Regional award winners. That group created the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award, which has led to 1,042 mentors beautifully recognized for their achievements.

He was passionate about empowering and encouraging the WFA and WFFA recipients to do great things. Between the years of 2006-2017, he and his wife Bev hosted a summit of Championship WFA winners at their home in Coral Gables, FL. We were always amazed with their care and hospitality.

During the early years of FIRST, Dr. Bill would volunteer as an FRC judge and often present the WFA award at Championships. He cared tremendously for the FIRST community and was a role model for all of us.

Please, if you have a story or a positive memory about Dr. Murphy, include it in this thread. Join me in honoring a great man.

RIP Dr. Bill

Sincerely,
Andy Baker
2003 Championship WFA Winner

[Taylor]

I recall a story long ago about Dr. Murphy and his pioneering work with heart pacemakers. The details are fuzzy, but there were several biomedical manufacturers in competition with each other that came to a mutual agreement, showing coopertition in action.
I’m hoping somebody with a better memory or who was closer to the source can tell the story in full. It was quite inspiring.

[ssweeney]

Not my own story but here’s a video I saw on YouTube a few years back that talks about many of his achievements including the first pacemaker that could be programmed externally.