The 1963 graduate of Cardinal Dougherty High School wrote to one of his brothers that if he didn't make it home from Vietnam, he wanted the money due him to go to his three brothers' educations. He was a receiving clerk at the Sears Northeast store for two years before enlisting in the Marine Corps in October 1965. The 21-year-old lance corporal, an ammunition carrier, was assigned to Cornpany C of the 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, 3rd Marine Division. Murphy died in Thanh Phu in the Mekong Delta on Jan, 7, 1967, a week after he arrived in Vietnam. In addition to his brothers, be was survived by his parents and a sister.