Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Murphy began his federal career at the United States Post Office (1916) and moved to be cipher clerk at the American Legation in Bern, Switzerland (1917).

In February 1941, Murphy negotiated the Murphy-Weygand Agreement, which allowed the United States to export to French North Africa in spite of the British blockade and trade restrictions against the Vichy-governed area.

The two diplomats worked together amiably to ensure that the Casablanca Conference went smoothly in January 1943 and that Giraud and de Gaulle would join forces to unite the French among the Allies.

When Eisenhower needed a civilian from the State Department to assume a similar role in Italy in 1943, Murphy gladly accepted it and left Algiers behind.

[17][18] Murphy retired from the State Department in December 1959 but became an adviser to Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon.