After a battle with Alzheimer's disease, Dudley C. Murphy, Jr. of Springfield, Missouri passed away on November 19, 2022 at Springhouse Village in Springfield, Missouri at the age of 82.  He leaves behind his loving wife Martha "Deanie" Murphy and their son and daughter Quinn Murphy and Jennifer Henry.

Dudley - Christian, outdoorsman, fisherman, musician, artist, author, poet, songwriter, teacher, husband, father, friend.  By any measure, Dudley Murphy lived an extraordinary and impactful life.  Dudley was born on April 16, 1940, in Danville, Kentucky to Dudley Murphy, Sr. and Gladys Murphy, both of whom predeceased him. He grew up enjoying the outdoors, playing guitar, and sharing his love for  fishing and Torch Lake, Michigan with his father and mother.  Dudley attended University of Tulsa where his love for art and sculpture blossomed, and then the University of Oklahoma where he received his Masters in Fine Arts.

During his late-teens and 20's, Dudley developed into a well-known talent in the Tulsa music scene, playing with well-known artists such as J.J. Cale, Leon Russell and David Gates at coffee houses and clubs throughout the Tulsa area. It was during one of these performances that he met the love of his life Deanie, who attended his performances and took guitar lessons from Dudley, which eventually blossomed into a life-long 55 -year marriage. Dudley would eventually become one of the leading flat-pick bluegrass guitar players in the United States, taking second place at the esteemed Winfield Flat-Picking competition in Winfield, Kansas, recording the influential bluegrass album "Twin Picking" with Adam Granger, and going on to record 6 other albums with Deanie, County Line, and his most well-known band, Radio Flyer. Dudley's Radio Flyer memories were lively and colorful, and his bandmates became family to him.  During his career in Bluegrass, Dudley played and crossed paths with many well-known bluegrass artists including Bill Monroe, Sam Bush, Bela Fleck, Dan Crary, Mark O'Conner, and Tony Rice.

A true renaissance man, Dudley simultaneously continued in art, working at the Springfield Art Museum in the late-70's and thereafter enjoying a 38-year career as a graphic design professor at Drury University, where be started the Drury Visual Communications program.  Dudley's students "kept him young," and he was commonly known as a great professor, colleague and true confidant and friend to many of his students.  Dudley's impact among his students at Drury lasted his lifetime, as he was known as a man who "truly cared" about their professional and personal development as artists and human beings, maintaining close relationships with many former students well past his retirement from Drury in 2018.  In 2016, Dudley was awarded the  Drury University Distinguished Faculty Award, commemorating his significant contribution to the University and the many students he impacted over his 38-year career at Drury.

Perhaps less well-known than his art and music, was Dudley's significant contribution to fishing lure collectibles.  Dudley, along with John Goodman and Jerry Routhe, founded the National Fishing Lure Collectors Club (NFLCC) in 1976, an organization of antique fishing lure collectors that today boasts membership of 5000 worldwide.  Dudley was a world-renowned expert in the history of fishing lures and was often called to appraise lure collections or advise on trades between club members and friends.  During his time with the NFLCC, Dudley authored with his wife and fellow-collector Rick Edmiston, 2 hard copy antique fishing lure books that were sold by Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  Dudley also started and published a full color NFLCC magazine, eventually publishing 56 issues between 1991-2019. The success of the magazine was largely attributable to the beauty of its content, which Dudley produced with uncompromising attention to detail.

More than all his accomplishments, Dudley Murphy's life was characterized by a sincere and meaningful faith in his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, his love for his wife Deanie, his children, dogs (Shadow, Tipton, Cosmo, Oreo, Boomer, and Jax), his cabin near Torch Lake, Michigan, and his sincere compassion for anyone he came into contact with.  Dudley lived life to the fullest and on his own terms, often refusing to adhere to the inconvenient constraints of time.  As his family will attest, much of Dudley's guitar practice, song writing, and professional work was accomplished after 2:00 a.m., a time affectionately referred to as "his time." Dudley accomplished much but had a uncompromising heart for people, always investing in anyone in need.  In addition to being exceptionally talented and an unequaled husband and father, Dudley was loyal, loving, kind, creative and compassionate -- all characteristics he would credit to Jesus Christ, with whom he now resides.

Dudley is survived by his wife Deanie, son Quinn, daughter Jennifer, along with son in law Tom Henry and daughter-in-law Michelle Murphy, and five grandchildren (Mackenzie and Dylan Murphy, Tommy, Christian, and Grayson Henry), and sister Kathleen Wannenmacher.

A visitation will be held from 12-2 PM on Monday, November 28, 2022 at the Klingner-Cope Family Funeral Home at Rivermonte, 4500 S. Lone Pine Ave., Springfield, MO 65804 with funeral services to follow at 2 PM. Memorial donations can be made in his name to the Friedreich's Ataxia Research Alliance at www.curefa.org . Online condolences can be made and a more extensive obituary can be viewed at www.klingnerfuneralhome.com .