Joseph Stuart Murtaugh (1912-1973) was born in Weston, Massachusetts and graduated from the College of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. A statistician, Murtaugh joined the Army Surgeon General's office during World War II. After the war he worked with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration before becoming assistant executive director of the Public Health Service's Bureau of Medical Services. In 1956 he joined NIH as a member of the Director's staff, a position he held until becoming chief of Program Planning for NIH in 1961. He retired from the government in 1968 but continued working as executive secretary of the National Academy of Science's board of medicine and helped create NAS's Institute of Medicine.
From the guide to the Joseph S. Murtaugh Papers, 1946-1970, (History of Medicine Division. National Library of Medicine)
