Daniel J. Murphy – Admiral, United States Navy

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From a contemporary press report

Daniel Joseph Murphy Sr., 79, a retired four-star Navy Admiral who as chief of staff to then-Vice President George Bush was the prime architect of the Reagan administration’s war on drugs, died of a stomach aneurysm September 21, 2001, at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital. He lived in Potomac, Maryland.

Admiral Murphy, former commander of the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean who retired from active duty in 1977, led a White House drug task force that set up a military-style command and control center in southern Florida in the early 1980s to helpcurb the flow of marijuana and cocaine smuggled from South America and the Caribbean.

The massive effort cost millions of dollars, involved the coordination of military planes and ships, and included agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Customs Service.

Before his White House work, he was deputy undersecretary of defense for policy from 1977 to 1981 and deputy director of the CIA in 1976 and 1977.

He left government service in 1985, at the beginning of President Ronald Reagan’s second term, to join the lobbying and public relations firm Hill & Knowlton Worldwide in Washington as a vice chairman.

When Bush established his presidential campaign, Admiral Murphy briefly returned to the political arena, serving as a senior adviser on drug policy, national security and defense issues.

In recent years, he was chairman of the board, president and chief executive of his consulting business, Daniel J. Murphy and Co., which advises clients in international marketing and U.S. and foreign government relations.

He was a native of Brooklyn, New York, and a graduate of the University of Maryland and the Naval War College.

He began his 37-year naval career in 1943 during his second year at St. John’s University in New York. He flew antisubmarine patrols over the North Atlantic during World War II.

He was commanding officer of the aircraft carrier Bennington in the 1960s. In the early 1970s, he was principal military assistant to secretaries of Defense Melvin R. Laird and Elliot L. Richardson.

He was commander of the 6th Fleet during two periods of tension: the Arab-Israeli War of 1973 and the Cyprus crisis of 1974. He also was part of a father-son pair to have commanded Navy fleets. His son, retired Adm. Daniel J. Murphy Jr., commanded the 6th Fleet from 1998 to 2000.

In addition to his son, of Clifton, survivors include his wife, Elaine Murphy of Bethesda; three children, Shaun Murphy of Washington, Pamela Murphy of  Coronado, Calif., and Thomas Murphy, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Valetta, Malta; eight grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

MURPHY, DANIEL JOSEPH SR.
Retired Admiral, U.S. Navy

On Friday, September 21, 2001, of Potomac, MD. Beloved husband of Elaine Kelleher Murphy; father of Shaun, Daniel, Pamela and Thomas Murphy; grandfather of eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Friends may call at JOSEPH GAWLER’S SONS, 5130 Wisconsin Ave at Harrison St. NW, on Monday October 8, from 7 to 9 p.m. and Tuesday October 9, from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. Services will be held at the Old Post Chapel at Fort Myer VA, on Wednesday, October 10, at 10 a.m. Interment to follow at Arlington National Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to http://www.libertyunites.org

September 27, 2001
Adm. Daniel J. Murphy, Former Deputy Director of C.I.A., 79, Is Dead

Admiral Daniel Joseph Murphy, a retired Navy career officer who held positions in the Carter and Reagan administrations, died on Friday in a hospital in Rockville, Maryland. He was 79 and lived in Potomac, Maryland.

The cause was a stomach aneurysm, his family said.

In 1976 and 1977, when he retired from active Navy duty as a four-star admiral, he was the Central Intelligence Agency’s deputy director of central intelligence.

From 1977 to 1980, Admiral Murphy was deputy under secretary of defense for policy under President Jimmy Carter. He was Vice President George Bush’s chief of staff from 1981 to 1985.

In the early 1980’s, the admiral was also active on the South Florida Task Force, which involved moving an increased number of prosecutors to the area and using tougher methods to curb drug trafficking.

He was also for a time the chairman of the coordinating board of a new program in President Ronald Reagan’s war on drugs. The program was set up in 1983 to coordinate federal agencies’ efforts to stop the flow of illegal drugs into the United States. The program was criticized, but Admiral Murphy contended in 1984 that it was a success.

Daniel Murphy joined the Navy in 1942, and he rose to command the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean during the 1973-1974 Arab-Israeli war. He was deputy chief of naval operations for anti-submarine warfare from 1974 to 1976.

He was born in Brooklyn and graduated from the University of Maryland and the Naval War College in Rhode Island.

After leaving government, he was a lobbyist with Gray & Company, which was closely linked to the Reagan administration, and then worked independently. He represented Angola’s Marxist government and was a friend of Tongsun Park, a former South Korean intelligence agent and lobbyist, whose ties to congressmen figured in a scandal in the 1970’s.

Through the 1990’s, the admiral worked closely with David Chang, a New Jersey businessman, who pleaded guilty last year to obstruction of justice and to making illegal contributions to Senator Robert G. Torricelli, Democrat of New Jersey. The admiral was never charged with any legal offense in connection with the Torricelli matter.

Surviving are his wife, Elaine, of Bethesda, Md.; two daughters, Shaun Murphy of Washington and Pamela Murphy of Coronado, Calif.; two sons, Vice Adm. Daniel J. Murphy Jr., retired, of Clifton, Va., and Thomas Murphy of Valetta, Malta; eight grandchildren; and two great- grandchildren.

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