Ever since I met ben nearly 10 years ago in Denmark, I noticed certain qualities in him that were readily apparent. Firstly, he was always the one who was willing to help others when no one else would because it was inconvenient. For me, this was most obvious in Philadelphia, where he seemed to always be engaging in service for members of our church. Whether it was driving people late at night at the peril of losing a precious parking sport, or participating in service projects that were clearly not emergencies even when he had more important things to be doing, he was always the one to step up. He was the epitome of what it means to consecrate your time and talents to the service of others. He vocally expressed many times that he didn't think of himself as an especially good person, because he didn't enjoy doing a lot of these things (often jokingly). But to me, that was the whole point--that the hardest sacrifices to make and service to engage in, usually comes at moments when we have many excuses to say no. True service is responding that call when we know it isn't fun, easy, or convenient. He lived that to his core. One more quality in Ben that I admired was his ability to include others, especially those who felt alone. There were so many times on our mission where he would approach missionaries that were sitting alone and get to know them. This carried over to many other settings in school, church, etc. Furthermore, it was never a passive, one time attempt. He genuinely wanted to make people feel included and get to know them. I experienced this first hand after moving into a new college apartment with him and a few other people. I was very introverted and preferred to stay in my room most nights studying. However, one night, Ben invited me to karaoke with several other people, surely knowing that I might not contribute to the life of the party and may even be a bit awkward to bring along haha. He kept at it until we all moved out, and I was so happy every time he invited me along. There are so many other memories I have of him; beating us in fantasy basketball by so much that I may have accused him of cheating; eating fast food and both of us simultaneously claiming this would be the "last supper" before we started cutting calories (for the nth time); or being amazed at how he was able to ski down a double black diamond at snowbird like it was nothing after only a few years of skiing. Memories and words will never do justice, but I think many of these small stories and memories of what kind of person he was remind me of how lucky I, and I'm sure many others, are to have had him in our lives. My heart goes out to  his his wonderful wife and family--no one can know the sorrow that you must be going through. But in this sorrow, I want to let you all know that I don't know of any other better group of people he could have been around during this time. You all are extensions of the love and selfless service that he put forth. 

— with Ben Murphy

On the bullet train to Belgium — with Ben and Joanne Murphy

— with Ben Murphy