Joseph Richard Murphy was a man of many threads: an aspiring writer; an ardent student of philosophy, religion, and life; a lover of jazz; a Buddhist; a husband and a father, he passed away on November 6, 2024, in Pullman, Washington. Joseph was 72, and had been in declining health.
Joseph was born on June 29, 1952 to Paul Joseph Murphy and Lucille Antoinette Murphy in Olympia, Washington. He grew up in nearby Lacey, and like many an adolescent of the 60’s, embraced the possibilities of the emerging counterculture. In his mid teens he picked up a guitar, improvised a band with his high school buddies, and belted out the rock ballads of the era. His band mates scattered but his life long passion for music continued, later culminating in writing articles for local jazz publications in the Seattle area. Joseph attended St Martin’s High School, where he discovered his talent for debate and helped lead his team to multiple awards. He attended college at Washington State University, but after a year decided to broaden his horizons and transferred to the Evergreen State College in Olympia. There he studied whatever inspired him, and his curiosity and interest in learning continued long after he left college
Joseph worked various short-term jobs, but a formal career was never his calling. His goal was to sustain himself while pursuing his interests, a goal at which he variously succeeded. He became interested in writing poetry and short stories, eventually taking a stab at a novel about the early Shaker Church community. Joseph also became interested in Buddhism, and was a follower of Chogyam Trungpa’s teachings, in the Kagyu Tibetan tradition.
In the early 80’s Joseph met his future wife Anne Garfield. They moved to Orcas Island in fall of 1987, and married early the following year. Their first son, Miles, was born that spring. Their second son, Evan, was born 10 years later. The boys thrived growing up on Orcas, both graduating from Orcas High School before pursuing college and careers on the “mainland.”
With his health in decline, Joseph decided to leave his life on Orcas in late 2020 and take one last tilt at new horizons. He eventually settled in Walla Walla, where his son Miles and his wife, Melissa, also lived, then later moved on to Pullman. Alas, Joseph’s late-life aspirations were frustrated by his multiple health issues, and the threads of his life finally unwound there on the Palouse, where he had attended his freshman year in college.
Joseph is survived by his sons, Miles and Evan, his former wife Anne, his brother Paul, sister-in-law Laura, and Melissa and granddaughter Matilda (Tilly).
Advanced Directive
She ask after the disposition
Of that which remains
Should volition be taken
to shroud
And no voice issues forth
from muted cords
Of what circuits may be linked
to breath
What hydrology given purchase over
Parched cells and collapsed threads
As if the body’s destiny a matter of will
not an affair of moments
It’s qualities formed in gathering streams
Of visited defilements and congenital swirls
But why stop in suspension,
Perched between realms?
Where to choose souls futures,
Charting fortuitous rebirth?
Or to redeem the merits of past suffering
and be taken off the wheel’s life support
So to banish the feeding tubes of karma?
One body
Many paths
Circumscribed directions
What are my options, again?
