Daniel Murphy, 65, worked in the shipping department at the Bethlehem Township, Pa., office of Strahman Valves Inc., and was a long time employee of the company.
A devoted family man, Daniel Murphy made sure his two adult daughters and his grandchildren a big part of his life, his brother said today.
The 65-year-old Hackettstown area
man, who worked in Bethlehem Township, Pa., loved Skype conversations with his
family, especially his daughter Christine, who lived in Beirut,
Lebanon, David Murphy said today. Daniel and his wife, Rosalie, were
planning their second trip to the country to visit her family.
View full sizeDaniel Murphy "To him that was everything. His daughters and his grandchildren,"
said David Murphy, of Staten Island, N.Y. Their other daughter, Danielle Murphy-Lampman, lives in New Jersey. Both sisters went to Cedar Crest College in Allentown, according to their Facebook pages.
Daniel Murphy, of Washington
Township, Morris
County, was killed Monday morning when
a tractor-trailer slammed into the back of his 2000 Ford Taurus while he was paying
the toll at a booth on Interstate
78 West in Williams
Township, authorities said.
The collision sent both vehicles through the toll plaza to
the north shoulder of the road, police said. Both vehicles caught fire and
Murphy was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police have identified the tractor-trailer driver only as a 55-year-old Allentown man.
The investigation remained ongoing today, authorities said. No charges have been filed.
A native of Staten Island, Daniel Murphy and his wife moved more than two decades ago to the Hackettstown area, his brother said. Murphy worked in the shipping department at the Bethlehem Township office of Strahman Valves Inc. in LVIP VI, and was a longtime employee of the company.
David Murphy said his brother used to travel quite a bit for his job and of the two, Daniel Murphy was the one willing to try new things.
"He was always open to new ideas," David Murphy said. "I would be more the more conservative one. He was the one open to new things."
With an outgoing personality, Daniel Murphy was easy to like, his brother said.
"He was very easy to talk to," David Murphy said. "He liked meeting new people. He was very friendly."
Daniel Murphy was also an avid stamp collector, he said.
"I used to have pen pals and when I would get stamps from them I would send them to him, which he enjoyed," David Murphy said. "We found old letters from relatives and he was able to keep some of the stamps from them. That was a big thing for him."
Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli said this morning an update is possible later today or Wednesday on the accident investigation.