In his 92 years, Worth lived a very full life. He was born in Chicago in 1932, as the only child of Worth D. Murphy, Sr., and Gertrude (Huckauf) Murphy. When the Great Depression hit, the young family returned to their farming roots in northwest Missouri. It was here that Worth grew up. He had many funny stories to tell about farm life, that always entertained us as kids. This difficult era in our nation’s history taught many people to be self-sufficient, and we’ve often said that there wasn’t anything that Dad couldn’t do. His uncle was the Sherriff in the town, and so this gave his rather rambunctious personality much latitude. He was “a full-blooded American male,” as he said, and he often got into a good deal of mischief. There was many a night, he recounted, that he came home without the family truck intact, and his father would simply shake his head.
Worth was a perfectionist, and meticulous to a fault. He took great pride in his work and being thorough. One needn’t look far to know that he learned his strong work ethic from his parents, particularly his German mother, Gertrude, who, we are told, would regularly inspect his work and say, “Now, Junior, you missed a spot,” before asking him to do something over again. In like fashion, he later taught his children to stick with a job until it was done correctly. Despite all of our moaning at the time, we agree today that this training served us well, as none of us are “afraid of” hard work.
After graduating from Gallatin High School, Worth went to college for one semester before he had to drop out to care for his dying mother. After the loss of his beloved mother, Worth was then drafted into the Korean War. He joined the Army (Air Corps) and was an aviation mechanic, stationed in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
After the service, Worth knew that small town life wasn’t for him, so he and a close friend embarked on a journey to California where he had hoped to begin flight school. Disillusioned by what turned out to be a fly-by-night program, he instead took a job at Northrop Corporation, near Los Angeles. This was fate, because, also working at Northrop, was a young woman from Needham, Massachusetts. They fell in love, married, and moved to the east coast. Shortly thereafter, Worth went to work in Thule, Greenland, where the Ballistic Missile Early Warning Radar System, or BMEWS, was first developed. He loved to tell stories about the Quonset huts, the polar bears, and how he was just 900 miles from the North Pole.
After Thule, he went to work for Raytheon. Then, Worth and Noreen briefly moved to Lawrence, Kansas, where Worth returned to school and finished his Bachelor’s degree at K.U. Later, he also earned his MBA from Babson College. When he retired, he was a CFO in the healthcare industry.
Dad didn’t believe in “downtime,” but his favorite pastime was reading his newspapers. He often had two papers and was never without his trusty Wall Street Journal. He even trained our Belgian shepherd, Kasey, to fetch the newspaper at the end of the driveway. She was determined to please him, even if retrieving the Sunday paper meant that she left a trail of paper behind her as she climbed up the driveway. Dad wasn’t shy about reading the paper aloud either. He wasn’t shy about most things, really, but when it came to the news, he would read it aloud, without warning, if there were any important headlines that he though we should all be aware of.
Similarly, he loved to read aloud the cards that he received for his birthday or Father’s Day. We would all groan in the process, as he slowly read them aloud, but we still indulged him with the biggest, longest, and sappiest cards we could find. They had to be from Hallmark. Anything less wasn’t sentimental enough. Sometimes, if he didn’t think he had everyone’s undivided attention with the first rendition, he would read them twice. This made us pay attention the first time.
Dad was a commanding presence. Even in his old age, and with Alzheimer’s, he kept us on our toes. He was in charge. Perhaps it was just his being the only male in a house full of women (which he complained about but secretly loved), perhaps it was the administrator in him, or the executive in him, or his tall stature, or whatever noise he made to get your attention. Perhaps it was simply because he commanded it. Whatever the source, he retained that respect to the very end.
In true paternal style, his constant refrain while we were growing up was, “What are your long-term plans and goals for the future?” More recently, the grandkids always had to give an accounting of where they were with progressing through school, jobs, etc. They learned to be patient as, in his developing confusion, he would repeat these questions over and over.
He was both meticulous and fastidious in his work. He took the same pride in his personal appearance, his car, and his home. He had a genuine talent for construction and landscape design. He took great pleasure in measuring and planning, and then executing his projects. He designed, built, and did all the finish work on the large sunroom on the back of the Framingham house. It was a source of great pride. Timeless in its design, it still looks great today, and we have enjoyed it now for decades.
Another labor of love was the Cape house. When he and Mom bought the house in Harwichport at auction, he thought he had made a big mistake, biting off more than they could chew, but Mom was determined to stick with it, and, together, they combined their talents and strong work ethic, and turned it into a thing of real beauty. When they sold it, it afforded them a better retirement. They had many years, and two additional homes, to enjoy in Venice, Florida. While there, they really lived their best life. They had a social calendar in Florida that was so full that even their kids couldn’t keep up with it.
Worth had a great sense of humor and a witicism quite unlike any other. To say that it was sometimes “colorful” would not be an exaggeration. You never quite knew what was going to escape his lips. While we might have been horrified at the time by what we heard him say, we all became so accustomed to this that, whenever we reminisce about Dad now, we say, “Remember the time, when this happened, and Dad said…(blank)?” Invariably, we all end up laughing hysterically, as we relive the scene, asking each other, “Can you believe him?! Who says that?!”
Worth was equal parts tough and tender. He was known for giving great hugs. Long, tight bear hugs, that would swallow you up. We can remember them as children. It’s unanimous; we all agree that there was nothing quite like Dad’s hugs. As he aged, his frame became thinner and it was heartbreaking to feel the bones in his shoulders when he gave his hugs, but they were as tight as ever. The love that his diminished frame communicated was steadfast. When Dad passed, we brought all his flannel shirts out of his closet. We each picked out one favorite shirt that we will keep. Each of us knows that, by wearing Dad’s shirt, we can all feel his hugs around us one more time.
Worth leaves behind his beloved wife of 67 years, Noreen, as well as his daughters, Colleen Reddy (and husband Philip of Newton), Lisa Murphy (Ashland), and Debra McCoin (and husband Scott of Ashland), and four grandchildren: Shawn Reddy, Keith Reddy, Ryan McCoin, and Kate McCoin. He is pre-deceased by his parents and his beloved grandson, Brian Reddy.
Family and friends are invited to honor and remember Worth’s life by celebrating his Funeral Mass on Monday morning, July 7th in St. Bridget Church, 830 Worcester Road, Framingham at 10 o’clock. Interment will follow in Glenwood Cemetery, Natick.
In lieu of flowers, please consider purchasing a stack of Hallmark cards to let your loved ones know how much they mean to you.
Arrangements by the McCarthy, McKinney & Lawler Funeral Home of Framingham. To share a memory with the Murphy Family, kindly visit www.mccarthyfh.com
Norton, McKinney & Lawler Funeral Home