Donald Murphy 1945 - 2025
USANZ has been advised of the passing of Dr Donald Murphy.
His funeral will be held on Tuesday 23 December at 1pm AEDT at St David's Church in Newtown, Geelong.
For those unable to attend, the service will be livestreamed via Jonathan Hepner Funerals.
USANZ thanks A/Prof Richard Grills for preparing the obituary below.
Donald Murphy passed away last Friday 12th December at Epworth Hospital, Geelong.
Don was born and bred in Geelong. He attended Geelong High School and was the first member of his family to go to university. He achieved his MBBS from Monash University in 1970. After completing his urological training he returned to his home town and became Geelong’s second specialist urologist in 1978. He had undergone sub specialist training with Bob Farnsworth in Sydney in paediatric urology and made a significant contribution to the management and ongoing care of children with complex urological problems in the Geelong region for many years, in addition to providing a general urological service. He supervised and imparted wisdom to countless urology trainees and was involved in establishing the surgical skills lab at RACS in 2001. For this work and his involvement with the RACS Heritage Committee he was awarded the RACS medal in 2018. He was twice the recipient of the Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand BAUS trophy (1999, 2020) and in 1999 was the recipient of the RCS Cutler Prize. He was a keen researcher and innovator and developed a number of different surgical instruments during his professional life. He achieved a Doctorate of Medicine from The University of Melbourne in 2007 for his work on pathophysiology of bowel function during laparoscopy. He had a particularly keen research interest in Electro-magnetic radiation Photodynamic Therapy which he remained actively involved in, up until his last admission to hospital with advanced duodenal cancer. He did like to challenge accepted paradigms and always encouraged his trainees and his colleagues to think laterally. He was involved in all facets as a VMO at Geelong Hospital (later renamed Barwon Health). He was not infrequently however late in attending outpatients, he had a great love of horses and the punt and was occasionally waylaid at the TAB which unfortunately he had to walk past from his private practice rooms on his way to the clinic! He was a surgical stalwart and a great supporter of St John of God Hospital in Geelong and was involved in a number of its committees over many years, until his retirement from practice in 2015. Don is survived by his wife Gloria, his four children and many grandchildren.