MURPHY, Brendan J.
Brendan J. Murphy, author and journalist, 59, of Washington, DC and Wethersfield, died Thursday April 5 at home with his family and friends after a long illness. Murphy was director of the U.S. Voice of America Broadcast Service to the African nation of Zimbabwe. He had been a reporter for the Cape Cod Times and for the Rome and Paris bureaus of United Press International. He also worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development as a writer. He was the author of two books: Butcher of Lyons, about Nazi Klaus Barbie; and Turncoat, true story of a British spy who betrayed the French resistance. He co-authored a recent book on the history of the Boy Scouts, the Scouting Party. Murphy was a graduate of Xavier High School in Middletown, Boston College, and the journalism graduate program at Boston University. He moved to Paris to teach journalism and later taught news reporting in Tunisia and other countries. He created a non-profit organization that collected used computers to send to African newspapers. He is survived by his mother Mary Murphy; sisters Judy Keane, Kathleen Dolan and her husband Thomas Dolan, Barbara Curran and her husband John Curran, Maureen Willsey and her husband Thomas Willsey, all of Wethersfield, and Marilyn Murphy of Denver Colorado; brothers Kevin Murphy of Wethersfield, and Denis Murphy of Santa Cruz, CA; and the love of his life, Maria de Ramirez Cutanda of Madrid, Spain, as well as many nieces, nephews and cousins. He is predeceased by his father Dr. Robert Murphy, and brother-in-law Richard M. Keane.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held Monday at 10 a.m. at Sacred Heart Church, 56 Hartford Ave., Wethersfield. There are no calling hours and burial will be private. Donations can be made to Doctors Without Borders USA/African Relief, P.O. Box 5030, Hagerstown, MD 21741-5030, or to the Richard M. Keane Foundation, P.O. Box 290742, Wethersfield, CT. 06129-0742. For online expressions of sympathy, please visit www.desopo.com.
