John Frederic Murray (June 8, 1927 – March 24, 2020) was an American pulmonologist best known for his work on

acute respiratory distress syndrome Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a type of respiratory failure characterized by rapid onset of widespread inflammation in the lungs. Symptoms include shortness of breath (dyspnea), rapid breathing (tachypnea), and bluish skin colo ...

(ARDS), which was responsible for his death after he fell ill with

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. On the international stage, he was involved for more than 40 years in the work of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (the Union), based in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. As its secretary general, he extended the scope of the organisation to diseases other than TB, and made its membership much less exclusive. Murray, the son of cartoonist and former Olympic hurdler Frederick “Feg” Murray, and his wife, Dorothy (née Hanna) was born in Mineola, New York. After his father moved the family to Los Angeles and after a period of wartime national service in the US navy as a radar engineer, Murray entered

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

and then the

Stanford University Medical School Stanford University School of Medicine is the medical school of Stanford University and is located in Stanford, California. It traces its roots to the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific, founded in San Francisco in 1858. This ...

, graduating in 1953. He was a Professor of Medicine emeritus at the

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It cond ...

(UCSF) School of Medicine and Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care at

San Francisco General Hospital The Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (ZSFG) is a Public hospital in San Francisco, California, under the purview of the city's Department of Public Health. It serves as the only Level I Trauma Ce ...

from 1966 to 1989. After retiring from his full-time positions, he lived part-time in France with his wife, the writer Diane Johnson, where he died in Paris after being infected by

Works

* ''Murray and Nadel's Textbook of Respiratory Medicine''

References

1927 births 2020 deaths People from Mineola, New York American pulmonologists Stanford University alumni Stanford University School of Medicine alumni UCSF School of Medicine faculty Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in France {{US-physician-stub