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| Michael J. Murray,
M.D., Ph.D. |
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Mike Murray is a “Renaissance man” (occasionally
a hard-headed one) who has diverse interests, skills
and responsibilities and is literally and figuratively
head and shoulders above the norm. Along with being
a loving and dutiful son, spouse, father and friend,
he is a physician and scientist with an extensive
ongoing service career in medicine and to various
charities but most notably to the United States Army
Reserve. He recently returned from a four-month tour
of active duty in Kuwait City with the 801st Combat
Support Hospital.
Son of William and Isabelle Murray, Mike was born
in Buffalo, New York, but moved to west Texas during
his formative years. His father tapped and stored
helium for Union Carbide in the natural gas fields
(this sparked his early interest in anesthesia) surrounding
Amarillo while his mother raised the family and was
active in a host of church and community activities.
His parents set an example of loyalty, service, faith
and charity. Mike had sufficient athletic skills to
play basketball for Benedictine College in Atchison,
Kansas, and, fortunately, the academic and leadership
abilities to graduate magna cum laude and eventually
be appointed as a member of the school’s Board
of Governors. After graduation and upon being appropriately
snubbed by the National Basketball Association, despite
his 6' 9'' height, he was drawn to the larger stage
of Houston where he attended Baylor College of Medicine
and earned a medical degree and a doctorate in neurophysiology.
Postgraduate training in internal medicine followed
at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and the University
of Utah, as did a tour of service with the Indian
Health Service in Cass Lake, Minnesota. During his
training in Rochester, Mike had the good fortune of
meeting Catherine Friederich, a tall, vivacious and
attractive nurse, future facile medical editor and
director of several medical specialty advocacy groups.
They married and raised four children: Karl, a Midshipman
at the U.S. Naval Academy; Elise, a sophomore at Washington
University; Tess, a senior in high school who will
matriculate at Notre Dame in the fall; and the ever-energetic
ninth-grader, Jenny. Although none of Cate and Mike’s
children matches him in height, at least two of them
can dunk a basketball over him, and all of them reflect
their parents’ commitment to family, service
and accomplishment. Cate’s incredible patience
and skill as an advisor and editor have helped Mike
in his various service endeavors and as an author
and educator. He currently is an associate editor
of the Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular
Anesthesia and co-editor of two respected textbooks,
Critical Care Medicine — Perioperative Management
and Clinical Anesthesiology, one of the most
widely read texts in our field. He has published more
than 70 peer-reviewed articles, an equal number of
scientific abstracts and a host of chapters, editorials
and reviews. He is active as a reviewer for approximately
20 scientific journals that span his wide range of
interests in anesthesiology, internal medicine, critical
care medicine and nutritional science. He continues
investigative pursuits of a wide variety of topics
such as nutritional modulation of critical illness,
the effect of spinal cord cooling during major vascular
surgery and genetic variability in response to anesthetics.
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Tall Task
While traveling outside
his camp one day, Dr. Murray was confronted
by an Arab man who insisted upon pulling
his hand until he was bent over enough
so the man could kiss the top of his head.
When the man asked if he was an American,
Dr. Murray assented and the man said,
“Thank you” and walked on.
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Mike and Cate started their family in Amarillo where
he worked as an internist on the faculty of Texas
Tech University. After several years, he was drawn
back to Rochester to complete a critical care fellowship
under the mentorship of Matthew Divertie, M.D., and
Michael Marsh, M.D., and a residency in anesthesiology
under the direction of Alan D. Sessler, M.D. He also
re-established a career as an investigator under the
guidance of Tony L. Yaksh, Ph.D. While in Rochester,
Mike moved up the academic ranks to Professor and
became Dean of the Mayo School of Health Sciences.
While at Mayo in Rochester, he was Chair of the Division
of Intensive Care and Respiratory Therapy, Director
of Critical Care Service and Co-Director of Hospital
Clinical Laboratories.
His service activities were impressive during this
time frame and continue to be so, including service
on the not-for-profit Wills Foundation Board of Directors,
which was established by his dear friend and mentor,
Mrs. Alice Pratt of Houston, to promote discovery
and education into Huntington’s Disease, a devastating
inherited neurologic disorder. He also worked his
way to the presidency of the Minnesota Medical Society
on the platform of primary care anesthesiology, became
a member of the American Medical Association House
of Delegates, President of the American Society of
Critical Care Anesthesiologists and council member
of the Society of Critical Care Medicine Board of
Governors. He is active on a variety of ASA committees,
serves as an oral board examiner, member of the Committee
on Critical Care Exams for the American Board of Anesthesiology
and is a question writer for the National Board of
Medical Examiners.
In 2002, after almost 20 years in Rochester, he was
drawn to the warmth, opportunities and challenges
that were offered as Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology
at Mayo in Jacksonville, Florida. In Jacksonville
he was able to obtain Accreditation Council for Graduate
Medical Education Residency Review Committee approval
for a formal residency in anesthesiology and to continue
his extensive writing, editing, educating and service.
He also maintains an important role as a mentor to
students, trainees and faculty.
Despite tremendous responsibilities and commitments,
he remains active in the Army Reserve. During the
past 15 years, he served on active duty at Brooke
Army Hospital in San Antonio during Desert Storm,
in Wurzburg, Germany, during Joint Endeavors (Kosovo)
and, most recently, Kuwait City during Iraqi Freedom
from October 2003 through February 2004. While stationed
at Camp Doha in Kuwait, Mike served as an anesthesiologist/pain
consultant/intensivist and teacher. He rotated every
four days on in-house call for 24-hour shifts and
directly managed acute trauma admissions as well as
elective and semielective cases. He also met with
the dean of the medical school in Kuwait City, delivered
several educational lectures to Army medical personnel
while stationed there and did some consulting about
allied health programs and certification. When queried
repeatedly over the years on why he maintained his
military status despite his other responsibilities,
he has been consistent in maintaining that he feels
that the men and women serving in our military deserve
the best care available. I have to agree — they
could send no one better.
Despite being a world-class traveler as a speaker,
visiting professor, ambassador for the Mayo Clinic,
Army officer and accidental tourist, Mike currently
finds himself reacclimating to the routine of day-to-day
life back in Jacksonville. I suspect that he will
refocus his energies and commitment after the many
unique experiences that he brought home from serving
in the Middle East. May he live long, prosper, re-grow
his hair and continue to serve (but next time stay
at home).
Spotlight
On… Maybe You?
The “Spotlight On…” column is
designed to salute those who have developed an avocation
or extracurricular activity that focuses attention
on our specialty and serves as an inspiration to
all of us.
We are seeking accounts of individuals who have
enhanced the image of anesthesiology through an
unusual aspect of public service, hopefully but
not necessarily related to medicine.
This recognition is intended for the grassroots
level of our membership and is not meant to reward
academic achievement or component society leadership.
“Spotlight On…” will be reserved
for individuals who would not generally be otherwise
recognized for their unique efforts.
Candidates for “Spotlight On…”
should be nominated in writing to the NEWSLETTER
Editor with a 500- to 700-word summary of the person’s
achievements. A photograph also should be included
whenever possible. Submissions will be reviewed
by the Committee on Communications.
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Douglas B. Coursin, M.D., is Professor of Anesthesiology
and Medicine, University of Wisconsin School
of Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison,
Madison, Wisconsin. |
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