The Wellesley Board of Selectmen this week gave its blessing to a plan for honoring Dr. Joseph Murray, the late Nobel Prize winning physician renowned for performing the world’s first successful human organ transplant in 1954, with a stone monument and bronze plaque in front of Town Hall.
The hope is that the monument — a gift to the town — will be in place by June 1 and that a dedication ceremony would be held around September that would include members of Murray’s family, friends and other supporters.
Murray, a Wellesley resident from the 1950s until he died in 2012, would be honored with a monument alongside the existing stone monument for William T.G. Morton, known for his pioneering use of Ether in surgery.
Selectman Thomas Ulfelder commented during the BoS meeting that the example of Dr. Murray, in a town with such a strong school system, shows “what heights people can reach in their careers.”
I recommend reading Murray’s autobiography, Surgery of the Soul, if you want to get a more complete picture of his accomplishments and life.
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