SuccES -AND THE SUDDEN CALL


women; and with it all a devoted husband and father, a lover
of the arts and the beautiful, an outstanding citizen, a man of
deep religious faith, profession and practice Dr. Murphree
was filling a place that surrounded him with the recognition


the lead
 Less
to him:
Bryan,
claimed


ing citizen of any state deserves.
than four years before, another great honor had come
his friend, the great commoner, William Jennings
Christian statesman and leader, had publicly pro-
Dr. Murphree as the one most fit to occupy the highest


honor the country can give a man, that of President of the
United States. It was no empty compliment Mr. Bryan
sought to bestow upon the educational leader. He stood by
his nomination of Dr. 'Murphree to the extent that the whole
nation took it up at least in an inquiring way. With quietude
and dignity, Dr. Murphree allowed both inquiry and praise
to flow about him, making no comment except appreciation of
the interest his friends were taking in him.
 But the honor marked him as greater than any-one locality
 or indeed any one state. And the fact that he had achieved
 recognition not as a political leader but in the educational
 field made Mr. Bryan's nomination of him more significant.

 Barely one month had gone by after Dr. Murphree's elec-
tion to the presidency of the National Association of State
Universities when the activities of the University of Florida
suspended for the Christmas holidays. Students left in joy-
ous groups for their homes in every community in the state
and to numerous other states. Many members of the faculty
took vacation trips, resting, refreshing their bodies and spirits
in the holiday atmosphere of Christmas time.
 With Dr. Murphree at his home were his two sons,
John A. H. Murphree and Albert Alexander, Jr.; and his
daughter Alberta with her husband David G. Worth. The
other daughter, Martha, a bride of a few weeks, who had gone
to live in Chicago, was preparing to leave for the holidays at
the parental home.
 It was Tuesday morning, December 20, 1927. The morn-
ing sun was bathing the University city and the Murphree
home in a balmy light of a Florida winter, but Dr. Murphree