• Sign up for free email newsletter
  • Advertise
  • Donate to support our work
  • Events calendar
  • About Us
Entering Swellesley
Pinnacle, Douglas Elliman, Wellesley

The Swellesley Report

Since 2005: More than you really want to know about Wellesley, Mass.

  • Restaurants, sponsored by The Cottage
  • Wellesley Square
  • School news
  • Private schools
  • Public Schools, sponsored by Sexton
  • Pre-schools
  • Camps, sponsored by NEOC
  • Kid stuff
  • Top 10 things to do
  • Business news
  • Embracing diversity
  • Worship
  • Letters to the editor
  • Guidelines for letters to the editor
  • Live gov’t meetings
  • Sports schedules & results
  • Deland, Gibson’s Athlete of the Week
  • Deaths
  • POPS Senior Profiles

Top Stories

July 4th schedule
Hiking Boulder Brook Reservation
Chain link summer in town
Needham Bank, Wellesley
Baum Financial, Wellesley
FIXT

Wellesley loses one of its best/brightest: Nobel Prize-winning Dr. Joseph Murray dead at 93

November 27, 2012 by Bob Brown

Dr. Joseph MurrayDr. Joseph Murray, the Wellesley resident renowned for performing the first successful organ transplant and for making huge advances in plastic/reconstructive surgery, has died at the age of 93 after suffering a stroke on Thanksgiving.

The 1990 Nobel Prize in Medicine winner died at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the same place he conducted his historic operations. The father of six also served as the first chief of plastic surgery at Children’s Hospital in Boston and during the 1940s, while with the Army Medical Corps, he treated wounded World War II soldiers whose hands and faces were disfigured (among his most amazing patients: pilot Charles Woods, who was severely burned in an airplane crash while in the Army.)

Murray’s most famous surgery came in 1954 at what was then called Peter Bent Brigham Hospital when he was lead surgeon for the world’s first successful human-to-human organ transplant, which involved identical twin brothers Richard and Ronald Herrick (the donor, Richard, died two years ago in Maine at the age of 79). The surgery was extremely controversial at the time, but according to the hospital, techniques pioneered by Murray and his team have led to 600,000 life-saving transplants since.

Murray transplant surgery
Via Brigham and Women’s Hospital

 

Here’s a good profile of Murray from today’s Boston Globe, and for an even more personal look at the man, I suggest reading his autobiography, called Surgery of the Soul, in which Murray recounts everything from his childhood on up throughout what was a fascinating and honorable life. Murray has been recognized by Wellesley in recent years during the Annual Veterans’ Parade in May.

More obituaries and tributes here from Reuters and BloombergBusinessweek.

image_print

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Advertisements

     
black & blue, Wellesley
Olive Tree Medical, Wellesley
Brandeis OSHER Lifelong Learning

Tip us off…

Please send tips, photos, ideas to theswellesleyreport@gmail.com

Advertisements

Wellesley Square Merchants
Wellesley, Jesamondo
Fay School, Southborough
Sexton test prep, Wellesley
Feldman Law
Wellesley Theatre Project
Volvo
Prepped and Polished Boston Tutoring and Test Prep
Human Powered Health, Wellesley
Admit Fit, Wellesley
charles river chamber
Derenzo, Wellesley
  • Bluesky
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Subscribe to our free weekday email newsletter

* indicates required

Follow Swellesley on Google News Showcase

The Swellesley Report has been selected to be highlighted on Google News Showcase. Please follow us there.

Most Read Posts

  • Friday is letters to the editor day on The Swellesley Report
  • Wellesley Select Board picks up Strategic Housing Plan discussion
  • Rotary Club of Wellesley seeks volunteers to help at "Farmer's Market"
  • Wellesley residential property sales for June 2-6, 2025
  • Wellesley government meetings for week of June 30: Select Board & Planning Board retreats

Click on Entering Natick sign to read our Natick Report

Entering Natick road sign

Recent Comments

  • Joan on Summer in Wellesley—a hike through Boulder Brook Reservation
  • Claire OShea on It’s another chain link summer in Wellesley
  • BB Wood on It’s another chain link summer in Wellesley
  • Deborah Brown on Summer in Wellesley—a hike through Boulder Brook Reservation
  • Deborah Brown on Summer in Wellesley—a hike through Boulder Brook Reservation

Calendar

Upcoming Wellesley events

Links we like

  • Danny's Place
  • Great Runs
  • Tech-Tamer
  • Universal Hub
  • Wellesley Sports Discussion Facebook Group

© 2025 The Swellesley Report
Site by Tech-Tamer · Login