Eger V. Murphree

Eger Vaughan Murphree (November 3, 1898 – October 29, 1962) was an American chemist, best known for his co-invention of the process of fluid catalytic cracking.

After teaching physics and math and coaching football for a year at Paris High School in Paris, Illinois, Murphree spent several years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a staff assistant and research associate in the Chemical Engineering Department.

In the 1950s he served in the Defense Department on scheduling missiles and coordinating the programs of the three services (as Nichols had done earlier).

[3] From 1947 to 1962 he served as Vice President of research and engineering Standard Oil of New Jersey, the company later known as Exxon.

Murphree died on October 29, 1962, at Overlook Hospital in Summit, New Jersey of coronary thrombosis.