Daniel Thomas Murphy, a Friend Departs

 

by Rocky Macy

I lost a very close friend this past April and have been negligent in not addressing his passing in this blog until now.  It was hard for me to talk about.

Daniel Thomas Murphy, a PhD clinical psychologist, and I met when I returned to Okinawa in 2010 after an absence of nearly forty years.  We both worked at the Mental Health Unit of Kadena Air Base, the largest US Air Force base in the Pacific.  Daniel had already been at Kadena for several months before I arrived, so he took me underwing and helped to re-orient me to life on the small Pacific island.  He immediately became a close friend and remained so throughout my two years on the island.   My contract was only for two years, and Daniel remained in place there when I left in July of 2012.

Daniel and I were part of a small group of five or six mental health professionals who worked, played, and traveled together.   In varying combinations we hit such exotic locales as Korea, Taiwan, Yoron and Ie Shima (Japanese islands just off the coast of Okinawa), Guam, and even Vietnam.  He and I did a ten-day tour of Vietnam over the Christmas holidays in 2011 in which we traveled with a pair of Vietnamese guides in a road trip from Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) to Hanoi, and that proved to be one of the most  fascinating travel experiences that I had in the Far East.

When I returned to the United States in the summer of 2012, I was reassigned to Luke Air Force Base near Phoenix.  Daniel visited me there in June of the following year - the absolute very worst time to come to Phoenix - and we raced from air-conditioned building to air-conditioned building as I showed him around town.  I remember Daniel saying during that trip, "My God, Rocky, how can you live like this?"

I didn't live that way much longer, and retired from my civilian career with the Air Force the following spring when I moved back to the Ozarks and began puttering around my little farm and petting zoo.  Daniel came to visit at the farm three times, once with our friend Valerie, whom we had worked with on Okinawa, in tow.  During one of his visits I introduced him to the American comedy/drama "Shameless,"  which featured many types of characters familiar to mental health workers.  He enjoyed the show so much that he streamed several complete seasons during his visit, with each episode leading to discusions about various clients or situations with whom we had worked. 

Daniel phoned in April of 2020 at the height of the pandemic saying that he would like to come for a visit, but I had a genuine fear of the virus and put him off.  That must have offended him because he never visited after that.  He had retired to Indianapolis, the area where he grew up, and I intended to drive out that way and pay him a visit, but the best laid plans . . . 

I did receive a couple of emails from my good friend during the last few years with the final one on July 21, 2023, which he sent from Spain - with a view from his balcony in a small Spanish town.  I emailed back saying that I was envious - and I was!

Nefredia, another mutual friend from our days on Okinawa, called late one evening in early June of this year from her home in North Carolina with the sad news that Daniel had died at his home in Indiana - unexpectedly - of a heart attack several weeks earlier in April.   Nefredia had just learned the news.  After she hung up, I called Valerie at her home in Alaska and updated her.  

Daniel Murphy in death was following the example of Daniel Murphy in life, and slowly making his way around the globe.

My good friend was two years younger than me at the time of his passing, but as he liked to point out, we were both born during the Truman administration.

Daniel, you are missed by many.  Happy trails, my friend, and my your travels and wonder at the world around you never cease.