Dr. Harry Murtiff

1939 - 2019

(News story) DELTA, Ohio - Dr. Harry Murtiff, an osteopathic physician whose decade as Fulton County coroner capped a career that included a longtime private practice and service to the school district, hospital, and community, died Nov. 5 at Browning Masonic Pathways in Waterville. He was 80.

He had Alzheimer's disease, his wife, Judy Murtiff, said.

Dr. Murtiff had been a deputy coroner in Fulton County for 18 years - including tenure as chief deputy - when he was appointed in 2002 to succeed Dr. Ben Reed, who retired as coroner. Voters then elected and re-elected Dr. Murtiff, who ran as a Republican and was unopposed.

Autopsies were performed by the Lucas County coroner's office, allowing Dr. Murtiff and his deputies to concentrate on investigations at death scenes and to work with law enforcement, he told The Blade in 2002..

He'd considered forensic pathology as a career early on.

"I guess it's the curiosity. It's just fascinating," he told The Blade. He decided he could better support his family as a physician in practice.

He retired as coroner in June 2012. The current coroner, Dr. Rick Yoder, was elected after county commissioners appointed him as acting coroner.

Dr. Murtiff was a 1970 graduate of the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. He'd earlier worked as a laboratory technician at Parkview Hospital, the osteopathic hospital in Toledo's Old West End. A physician whom Dr. Murtiff worked with invited him to join his practice in Delta.

With patients, "he would spend the amount of time they needed," his wife said. "He was caring and wanted to hear about their families. He was interested not only in their illnesses, but if they were having problems in their life, he would take time to discuss it."

Dr. Murtiff invited home those he knew would be alone for the holidays.

"He did so many things behind the scenes that others didn't know about, because he was a private person," his wife said. "I never knew who was going to be at the dinner table for Christmas or Thanksgiving."

His daughter Jennifer Thourot, a nurse, keeps a photo of him at work - the University of Toledo Medical Center, the former Medical College of Ohio Hospital - to remind her of his lessons: "You're there not for yourself, [but] for the patients for the greater good, so people can be the best they can be in everyday life."

For nearly 40 years, Dr. Murtiff was physician for the athletes of Pike-Delta-York schools. He was medical director of the Fulton County Health Center emergency department for 25 years and of the county's emergency medical service for nearly 20 years.

"He was an awesome, awesome, awesome person," said Patti Finn, chief executive of the Health Center, the hospital in Wauseon. "He loved to teach. If I had a question about a diagnosis, a procedure, he would explain it in lay terms, so you could understand it. He was very forward thinking, and it was an asset that he was the director of the emergency department."

Dr. Murtiff also taught at UT.

He was born Feb. 26, 1939, in Altoona, Pa., to Geraldine and Harry Murtiff. After graduation from Altoona High School, he became a laboratory and X-ray technician in Cleveland.

He liked to play golf. And he loved to tie flies and to go fly fishing in the Little Manistee River in northwest Lower Michigan, where the family has a cabin, his wife said.

Surviving are his wife, the former Judith Schill, whom he married Nov. 27, 1958; daughters, Tracee Mohler and Jennifer Thourot; son, Bradley Murtiff, and five grandchildren,

Services were private. Arrangements were by Barnes Funeral Chapel, Delta.

The family suggests tributes to the Ohio Living Hospice in Toledo; Browning Masonic Community Pathways, Waterville, or Fulton County Health Center, Wauseon.

This is a news story by Mark Zaborney. Contact him at mzaborney@theblade.com or 419-724-6182.