WE LOST ONE OF OUR OWN

RPBrown · Post by **RPBrown** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 9:51 am

I am guessing that arraingments haven't been made yet. I have checked both yesterdays and todays Dallas Morning News with no mention. I will however get the Fort Worth paper and check it as well. As soon as I find something out I will post the arraingments.

Charles, great idea about a card. Let me know if his family needs anything at all.

XD_Dan · Post by **XD_Dan** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 10:25 am

Mr. Murphy was an honored member of the Texas XD Practical Shooters Association. Although he was never able to attend a match, he was always very supportive and very complimentary of our group.

RatMan will be dearly missed. Our hopes and prayers go out to Barbara, friends, and family.

Godspeed Gary.

jbirds1210 · Post by **jbirds1210** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 10:44 am

Gary's family will be in our prayers. I am sorry to hear this sad news.
Jason

Post by **Charles L. Cotton** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 2:53 pm

XD_DAN, thanks for the photo and the information.

Chas.

Post by **Charles L. Cotton** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 9:41 pm

Gary's wife Barbara said the final funeral arrangements are not set, but she hopes it will be on Saturday. The notice will be in the Fort Worth Star Telegram and I'll try to post it here as well.

I want to thank everyone for their posts. Barb has been reading them and they mean a lot to her. Here is a portion of her email to me:

Tell everyone I LOVED reading the messages, cried thru them, but they were proud tears. He was liked by everyone and that is wonderful to know.

Regards,
Chas.

XD_Dan · Post by **XD_Dan** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 10:39 pm

Charles L. Cotton wrote:XD_DAN, thanks for the photo and the information.

Chas.

You're welcome. It's the least I could do.

This is really a sad situation. I had the opportunity to speak with Gary a few times, and he was always so pleasant...even with all that he was going through. I was really looking forward to getting to shoot with him someday. RatMan joined our group in late spring of 2005, and wasn't able to make his first few matches. Shortly after that, in late September, Gary made this announcement on our forum...

RatMan wrote:After a 13 day extended tour of Harris Methodist Hospital, my parole papers came down about 5:00pm Thursday and I am now at home. Thank GOD!

Not sure if ya'll know what I've had done or have but here goes...

Starting back in April I started getting real tired all the time. Then, in June I went to the doctors and was diagnosed with hypertension and Type 2 Diabetes. After hearing that, I drastically changed my diet and life style so when I had lost almost 30 pounds in three months, I really did not think that much about it....

Fast forward to the first of September:

I started having trouble keeping food down. No matter what I ate, within a two or three days it would come back up. This went on for about a week then started to get so that I was throwing up two to three times a day. I went back to the doctor and she scheduled a "CaT" scan on the 16th at 11:30am...

Well, about 2:30pm they called and wanted me to get to the Harris ER ASAP. All they said at the time was I had a blockage in my intestine and a "mass".

After being admitted into the hospital, I met with my surgeon and was then informed that I most likely had pancreatic cancer and also some spots on my liver and was scheduled for a gastro bypass, (in his words, MAJOR surgery) on the19th. He told me that while it was possible that the mass could be beguine, he said that since he saw the spots on my liver that it was, most likely, malignant but we would know for sure when they did a biopsy on my liver during the operation.

Well, to make a long story even longer, it is in fact malignant and in a couple of weeks I'll meet with my Oncologist <sp> to start a chemo plan of action.

Needless to say, this all has hit me like a TON of bricks as there has never been any cancer in my family. Everyone has always died of "old age".

I know that I am facing the fight of my life but with the strength and help of God, my family and friends, I will prevail over this!

Thanks again and God Bless!

I hope that you all don't feel that my quoting him was inappropriate. I just thought it might give a little glimpse into Gary's life. The fact that he remained pleasant throughout all of his troubles, is a testament to Gary's character. I know that RatMan is in a better place now.

Lumberjack98 · Post by **Lumberjack98** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 10:11 am

God bless you Gary!

Post by **Charles L. Cotton** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 10:33 am

XD_Dan wrote:I hope that you all don't feel that my quoting him was inappropriate.

Not at all. Gary had already posted this information, so you're publishing anything he wanted confidential.

Thanks again,
Chas.

Jim101 · Post by **Jim101** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 1:40 pm

Gary and his family ae in my thoughts and prayers.......

Jim

XD_Dan · Post by **XD_Dan** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 8:07 pm

I just received this in an e-mail from Barbara Murphy...

Services will be Saturday January 28th at 1pm.

The obituary will be in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Thursday & Friday. They will also have an on line guest book if anyone would like to sign it.

Thank you all so much for all the emails I have received. I am printing them out to share with the family.

Barbara

I will try to post a link to the online guestbook for those interested in signing it.

DaveT · Post by **DaveT** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 11:42 pm

Being fairly new here, I never had the opportunity to know Gary. But being an administrator and moderator on other motorcycle related boards has given me an insight as to what it is like to lose a valued member who is a friend to all and supportive to the group as a whole.

My wife and myself will add Gary's family to our prayers, may God wrap his loving arms around each of them as they go through the days, weeks, months and years to come.

After reading all the replies to this thread, Gary has indeed left his imprint on many memories....

Bubba · Post by **Bubba** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 11:08 pm

I had the pleasure of working with Gary the last 11 or 12 years. We had many laughs together and went thru our 1st CHL class together. There is more that I could say, but this is still a painful subject.

XD_Dan · Post by **XD_Dan** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 8:42 am

For those of you who are interested in signing the online guest book for Gary Murphy (aka RatMan), here is a link...
GUEST BOOK

Here is a direct link to Mr. Murphy's obituary...
GARY MURPHY'S OBITUARY

RPBrown · Post by **RPBrown** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 8:57 am

Thank you XD-Dan. We all should sign the guest book

Post by **Charles L. Cotton** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 10:03 am

The family has requested that anyone planning to send flowers please consider a donation to a fund that will be set up to benefit Gary's two granddaughters he and Barb are raising. As I understand, the fund has not yet been established, so we don't have a place to send checks, if we are so inclined. I will post more information as soon as I get it. Bubba may get the information before I do.

Regards,
Chas.

TexasCHLforum.com

WE LOST ONE OF OUR OWN

Update * Link to online guest book for Gary Murphy