Entrepreneur Dave Murphy gets financial lift from Wayne County

Six years ago, a motorcycle crash almost killed Dave Murphy.

Th collision with another vehicle left Murphy — a longtime member of the Paul L. Murphy & Son Funeral Home in Newark — at Strong Memorial Hospital with a multitude of injuries — from fractured vertebrae in his back and neck to two broken shoulder blades, 12 broken ribs, leg fractures and a punctured lung, among other injuries.

Given the extent of his injuries, doctors weren’t sure he’d walk again.

Murphy wasn’t buying it. With help from UR, his family and friends and his own fierce determination, he’s back on his feet, often needing just a cane to get around.

But his job as one of the operators of the funeral home business had become much harder. Back injuries are common in the funeral industry, where heavy lifting is a requirement.

For Murphy, it was an impossibility. In order to do his job, he needed to hire assistants to help out.

Then he came up with Load Alone, a lifting device for funeral home operators that makes the task of loading funeral related cargo a one-person job.