Robert Eugene Murphy

Robert Eugene Murphy, age 90, died at home in Venice, Florida on January 30, 2018.Born in 1927 in East Stroudsburg, PA, he was the son of Clarence R. Murphy and Nora Cramer Murphy, and was pre-deceased by his older sister Ruth Murphy Bocko. He graduated with a degree in electrical engineering from Penn State University in the late 1940’s. He and his first wife, Lydia Nyce Murphy, who were married in 1948, had three children, who were raised mostly in Rocky Hill, CT. After graduating from Penn State, Robert moved to New London, CT, and began working at the Hartford Electric Light Company in 1950. He soon moved to Manchester, CT and then a few years later to Rocky Hill, CT, where he and Lydia lived for about thirty years. He retired from Northeast Utilities in the early 1980’s. He and his second wife, Caroline (née Giuliano) were married in 1981. They moved to Venice, FL in 1990. In his younger years, Robert enjoyed playing golf, tennis and badminton. He went fly-fishing in the streams of Connecticut, and hunting in the Connecticut State Forest. He taught his daughters how to play chess when they were very young. He was an avid and advanced ham radio operator (his call sign was WA1UHG), having received training in wireless radio operation during a year that he spent in the Navy from 1945 - 1946 before finishing college. He often spent vacations taking his family camping and canoeing in New England or upstate New York. He loved gardening, and grew vegetables (including corn) and flowers. With his second wife, Caroline, he travelled in Europe, attended many cultural events, and very much enjoyed life in Florida. He and Caroline enthusiastically took their visiting family members to many wonderful places, such as the John and Mabel Ringling Museum and the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, the Myakka River State Park to see alligators, the John “Ding” Darling Wildlife Refuge, to the Venice jetty to see the pelicans, and of course, to the lovely town of Venice. He especially loved to go to the Venice Audubon Society’s “Rookery”, a natural nesting area on an island, to see the herons and ibises, and where he once happily encountered Roger Tory Peterson. Robert Murphy is survived by his wife, Caroline, of Venice, FL, his daughters Doris Ruth Murphy of Pennington, NJ and Susan Murphy Colombini of Sandy Spring, MD, and his son Robert Hurlbut Murphy of Lancaster, MA. He is also survived by his stepdaughter, April Colter of Lakeland, TN, and his stepson, Darren Flanagan of Port Charlotte, FL. He has nine grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren, and four step-grandchildren. A memorial service will be held for him on Friday, March 23, 2018 at 11:00am at the Venice Presbyterian Church, 111 Firenze Avenue East, Venice, Florida 34285, where his ashes will be interred in the burial ground there. A guest book for Robert E. Murphy may be viewed and signed on the website of Toale Brothers in Venice, FL at www.toalebrothers.com.

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Robert Eugene Murphy

January 30, 2018