John Murphy, 91; was chief of urology unit

John Joseph Murphy, 91, of Bryn Mawr, former chief of urology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, died of heart failure Monday, Feb. 6, at Bryn Mawr Hospital.

Dr. Murphy joined the staff of HUP in 1953 after completing a surgical residency there and a urology residency at the University of Michigan.

For almost 20 years, he practiced urological surgery under I.S. Ravdin, the renowned chief of surgery and administrator.

From 1964 until 1980, Dr. Murphy was director of the division of urology. After retiring from surgery in 1988, he remained on the Penn Medical School faculty. He also was a senior consultant in the urology department at Mercy Catholic Medical Center in Darby Borough until the mid-1990s.

Dr. Murphy was a member of several professional organizations, including the Halsted Society and the American College of Surgeons. He was past president of the Mid-Atlantic section of the American Urological Association.

A native of Scranton, he earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Scranton in 1942. He met his future wife, Alice McHale, when she was a student at Marywood College in Scranton.

He graduated from the Penn Medical School in 1945, then served in the Army at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

He and his wife raised six children in Merion and enjoyed vacationing with their family at "Pop's Fishin' House," their home in the Poconos.

Dr. Murphy spent much of his leisure time fly fishing and was a member of the Tunkhannock Fishing Association in Carbon County. He also hunted deer and a variety of game birds, and was an excellent trap and skeet shooter, a daughter, Genevieve Nelson, said.

Dr. Murphy and his wife traveled abroad for professional and personal reasons. In the 1970s, they visited Kuwait, Egypt, and Qatar, where he helped establish the urology department in a new hospital.

Also in the 1970s, Dr. Murphy was a visiting professor at the Royal College in Dublin. He and his wife were proud of their Irish heritage, and in the 1990s they spent long vacations in Oughterard, where they were named honorary citizens.

In addition to his wife of 67 years and daughter, Dr. Murphy is survived by daughters Madeline Curry, Alice Mitchell, and Patricia Donnelly; a son, Peter; a brother; 13 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. Another son, John, died in 2011.

A Funeral Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Friday, Feb. 17 at St. Margaret's Church, 208 N. Narberth Ave., Narberth.

Donations may be made to the Nature Conservancy, 4245 N. Fairfax Dr., Suite 100, Arlington, Va. 22203.