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A memorial Mass be will be held on Nov. 13 for James F. Murphy Jr. ’58, a Korean War veteran turned novelist who taught for 28 years in the Woods College of Advancing Studies. Prof. Murphy died on Sept. 27 after a long illness. He was 83.
The Mass for Prof. Murphy will take place at noon in Our Lady’s Parish, 573 Washington Street, Newton.
Prof. Murphy was a self-described “dogface” private who fought in Korea with the 7th Infantry Division during the last several months of the war. His experiences as a soldier would serve as an inspiration and basis for his writing, and he went on to publish war-themed novels including Quonsett, Night Watcher, The Mill, They Were Dreamers and The Green Box.
But Prof. Murphy not only wrote; he taught others how to write. His teaching career spanned more than five decades and included stints in South Boston, Hopkinton, Natick, Sandwich – he served as head of the high school’s English Department there – and the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, where he established the school’s first drama program, as well as at Woods College, where he taught creative writing and Irish literature.
One of Prof. Murphy’s students was Marty Walsh, who graduated from Woods College in 2009 and four years later was elected mayor of Boston.
In 2010, the Woods College established a scholarship in Prof. Murphy’s name, in recognition of his making a difference in the lives of his students.
All the while, Prof. Murphy’s continued to write. His widely published essay “Freedom Village,” an eyewitness account of a prisoner exchange at the end of the Korean War, was submitted by a reader to an anthology of veterans’ stories, Chicken Soup for the Veteran’s Soul, that was released in 2001.
“Freedom Village” was chosen as the lead essay for the anthology. “The editor told me it was a toss-up between me and John McCain,” Prof. Murphy told the Chronicle.
A few months before his death, Prof. Murphy completed a World War I-era novel titled After They’ve Seen Paree.
A Newton, Mass., native, Prof. Murphy first attended the BC Evening College as a part-time student, but was drafted into the Army in 1952, and shipped out to Korea in the spring of 1953. He took part in the second battle of Pork Chop Hill, on July 4, a little more than three weeks before a truce was signed to stop the fighting.
Prof. Murphy is survived by his wife, Margaret; their children Nina, Joanna Swanson, Ted – who now teaches his creative writing class at the Woods College – Sarah, Courtney and Seton; and two grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Scholarship Association of Falmouth, P.O. Box 369, Falmouth, Mass., 02541 with the notation Jim and Margaret Murphy Scholarship.