Bill Lee Murphy was received into his Heavenly Home by the welcoming arms of his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, on Monday, July 13, 2026. There to welcome him was his beloved wife of sixty years, Janet (“Jan”) Lee Murphy, who had arrived on May 26, 2026.

In God’s timeless realm, 88 years is fleetingly short, yet each fractional measurement of His gift of time on Earth was a wonderful forever with Jan, their son Brock Grady Murphy, his parents, Roscoe (“Rock”) and Josephine (“Jo”) Murphy, his in-laws, Jerry and Emily Smith, his grandparents, his cousins, and his friends. “Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I look forward to even more wonderful forevers in Heaven.”

Bill was born on May 15, 1938, in Huttonsville, West Virginia. His family moved to Elkins, West Virginia where he graduated from Elkins High School in May of 1956. He began his college career at West Virginia University but graduated in May 1960 from Davis & Elkins College. His Air Force ROTC activities at “D&E” led him to a twenty-one-year career in the United States Air Force (“USAF”). His USAF assignments were generally within the 14th Aerospace Force (“Air Defense Command”), a genesis to what is today the United States Space Force. The USAF led Bill to Colorado Springs, where assignments at Ent, AFB and Cheyenne Mountain caused a life intersection with the then-Janet Lee Smith of Elkhart, Indiana. They were wed on March 11, 1966, and, between remote assignments to Shemya, Alaska and Kho Kha Air Station in Thailand, along came their only child, Brock Grady Murphy.

From 1972 to 1977, Bill was assigned to work for the Organization of the Joint Chiefs of StaƯ (“JCS”) in the Pentagon in Washington, DC. For that work, he was awarded a Joint Service Commendation Medal from the Department of Defense. He previously received two Air Force Commendation Medals (1968 and 1969) and two Meritorious Service Medals (1971 and 1972). 

Additional education included: defense department-related courses, an MS in Systems Management from the University of Southern California in September of 1976, and graduation from the Air War College (“AWC”) (Maxwell AFB, Montgomery, AL) in September of 1977.

Following his AWC graduation, Bill was appointed to the AWC staƯ and taught future classes until he received his final USAF assignment in 1980 to serve as Deputy Group Commander of the then-titled 4000th Satellite Operations Group at OƯutt, AFB in Omaha, NE. The 4000th was the primary backup command and control center for the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (“DMSP”), the USAF’s longest-running production satellite program. Bill was selected for promotion to Colonel but retired as Lt Colonel. He flew the T-37 and T-33 in USAF pilot training and later received his private pilot’s license flying Piper Cherokee 140’s and 180’s.

After retiring from the USAF, Bill worked for thirteen years with Martin Marietta Aerospace Corporation (“MMAC”) (now, Lockheed-Martin) in Denver, CO. He retired from MMAC in 1994 and relocated with Jan to Navarre, FL, where they managed a successful real estate business together. Bill became a licensed real estate instructor and taught real estate practices for seven years until 2007 when he fully retired at age 69.

Bill’s Homesteads included Elkins, WV (1940-1961) with Father Rock and Mother Jo; Orlando, FL (1961-1962) single; Colorado Springs (1963-1966) single; Colorado Springs (1966-1972) with Jan and Brock; Reston and Herndon, VA (1972-1977); Montgomery, AL (1977-1980) with Jan and Brock; Bellevue, NE (1980-1981) with Jan and Brock; Englewood (now, Centennial), CO (1981-1994) with Jan and Brock; and, Navarre, FL (1994-2026) with Jan.

Bill is survived by his son, Brock Grady Murphy, and numerous cousins, including his double first cousins, Gary Murphy and Sharon Murphy Mahan, as well as cousins Roland Gates, Jerry Gates, and Rick Hanger.