It is with a heavy heart that DPC and the DPC Education Center Board, staff, and volunteers learned of the passing of one of our Board Members, Pius Charles Murray. Pius was originally from Worcester, Massachusetts, but his extensive travels brought him through Rome and Jerusalem, and finally Somersworth, New Hampshire. He became a priest in 1986 and throughout his life was a member of several religious orders where he studied and taught scripture, worked to promote unity across different Christian denominations, and pastoral counseling. Pius was also a librarian and took pride in his work bringing libraries up to state standards and working to automate library services.
In July 0f 2017, Pius was elected to DPC’s Board of Directors, where he served as Secretary from 2023 – 2024, as well as the Vice President of the Education Center from 2021 – 2024. In addition to being a dialysis patient, Pius was also diabetic and due to complications, became a double amputee in 2022. Despite these difficulties, Pius worked tirelessly to advance the options and protections for kidney patients across the country, particularly in advocating for patients to be able to keep their private insurance coverage and increasing access to Medigap plans for dialysis patients under the age 65. He wrote several letters to the editor encouraging his local legislators to sign onto bills in support of these measures as well as meeting with them in person in Washington, DC, on multiple occasions.
We want to thank Pius for his many years of working to improve the lives of kidney patients – he will be sorely missed on the DPC and Education Center Boards, as well as by the larger kidney community.
