Murtagh, William J.

William J. Murtagh (b. 1923), one of the world's leading historic preservationists, played a pivotal role in the establishment and evolution of the field of historic preservation for more than fifty years.

Murtagh began his career as a supervising architect for the National Park Service at Independence National Historic Park in Philadelphia. In 1956, he assumed the position of Executive Director of the Annie S. Kemerer Museum in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Murtagh worked for the National Trust for Historic Preservation from 1958 to 1967, where he served first as assistant to the President and then as the Director of Education and Programs. Murtagh served as the first Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places for thirteen years until he became Director of the Historic Preservation Program at Columbia University in 1979. Two years later, he returned to the National Trust as Vice President of Preservation Services. After officially retiring in 1985, Murtagh continued to pursue an active teaching and lecture schedule. He was the first occupant of the Beinecke-Reeves Chair in Architectural Preservation at the University of Florida in 1995 and was involved with the historic preservation program at the University of Maryland from 1984 to 1996. Murtagh also taught at the University of Hawaii as a visiting professor between 1986 and 1998, during which time he served as the director of the Pacific Preservation Consortium. Murtagh is the author of Keeping Time, a basic text in the field of historic preservation which provides a comprehensive examination of the preservation movement.