Title: Walter P. Murphy, Jr., Oral History Interview

Identifier: OH0186   (https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/62805)

Description: Walter Patrick Murphy was born October 25, 1919, in Brooklyn, New York, to Walter and Ellen Murphy. He graduated from United States Naval Academy (1941), went on to serve on the Support Force (May-December 1941) aboard the cruiser USS Nashville. He graduated from Submarine School in July 1942 and continued to serve on submarines until he retired in August 1966. He had also been involved with the Polaris Missile program. After he retired, he accepted a civil service position with NASA as Senior Staff Officer to the Director of Kennedy Space Center where he stayed for seven years during the Apollo Program. He then became the NASA European Representative for five years in Paris until 1978 when he returned to California to head the NASA Office at Vandenberg AFB. Murphy retired again in 1983 and moved to Santa Barbara, California, where he died May 24, 2013, at the age of 93. - April 26, 2001