William P. Murphy Jr.

William Parry Murphy Jr. (November 11, 1923 – November 30, 2023) was an American physician and inventor of medical devices including collaborating on a flexible sealed blood bag used for blood transfusions. He was the son of the American physician William Parry Murphy who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology for Medicine in 1934, and Harriett Adams, the first licensed female dentist in Massachusetts.

Background
William Parry Murphy Jr. was born in Boston on November 11, 1923, the son of hematologist William Parry Murphy and Harriet (née Adams) Murphy, the first woman to become a licensed dentist in Massachusetts. Murphy grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard University in 1946 with a major in pre-medicine and a minor in architecture. He received his M.D. in 1947 from the University of Illinois and also studied physiologic instrumentation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1947 to 1948.

Personal life
Murphy married Barbara Eastham in 1943; they had three daughters and divorced in the early 1970s. In 1973, he married Beverly Patterson.

Murphy turned 100 on November 11, 2023, and died 19 days later, on November 30, at his home in Coral Gables, Florida.

==Career == Murphy was the chairman of the board of directors at U.S. Stem Cell, formerly Bioheart. He retired in 2022.

U.S. Patents
Murphy holds 17 U.S. patents issued between 1952 and 1980.

*         Walter B. Dandliker, PhD       Coinventor

**        J. Walter Keller                     Coinventor

***       BJ. Lipps                             Coinventor

Publications
He co-authored nearly 30 medical publications and helped to establish several professional organizations such as FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a non-profit group dedicated to inspiring young people's interest in science, technology and engineering, founded by his friend Dean Kamen.