W. Rhoads and Eleanor Murphey

I had the great pleasure of knowing Eleanor and Rhoads for over thirty years. I joined them and their daughter Ellen on an overland trip from England to India and the Far East in 1978-9, during which time they became like second parents to me. In the early 1990s we met up again at Oxford when Rhoads had a teaching engagement there. They were kind, intelligent, fun-loving people -- the very best of a generation that is now almost gone. When we were driving through central India, we got some...

Rhoads was my Ph.D. dissertation adviser from 1973 to 1977. Since I got my degree, I had stayed in touch with Rhoads and Eleanor and visited with them at their Strathmere home in New Jersey every summer until Rhoads stopped making his decades-long, annual commute between Ann Arbor and Strathmere. I will remember Rhoads as my best teacher, mentor and special friend who taught me by example as much as in the classroom. I used to walk the beach with Rhoads or Eleanor or both and we had the most...

My condolences to the Murphey family. I had the pleasure of knowing Rhoads and Eleanor briefly through my work painting their Washtenaw home. They were wonderful. I fondly remember Eleanor explaining the origins of the beautiful Japanese woodblock prints throughout the home and her excitement at my plans to move to Portland, Maine. I ended up adopting Eleanor's cat "Mensch" and he is still living happily with my parents (although they re-named him "Murph").

Rhoads and Eleanor loom large in our lives here in Ann Arbor, both as wonderful hosts in their home on Washtenaw Avenue and at their acreage in the Irish Hills, where Rhoads' white peaches were the best. Nancy enjoyed several years of working with Rhoads at the Assoc. for Asian Studies, where his encyclopedic knowledge of Asia and his infectious sense of humor were evident. We both had a whale of a time on his sailboat in Nantucket Sound in the 70s! Eleanor charmed us always in her...

Dr. Murphey's knowledge of geography was breathtaking and the classes he taught were captivating. Please accept my sympathies.

I will miss them both. Her smile and his stories of China