David Murphy was riding his motorcycle in 2013 when a driver ran through a stop sign, hitting and nearly killing him. He grew up in funeral service and is a funeral director by trade. He told those around him at the time, “I’m the guy who puts people back together who died. I know my injuries. I’m not going to make it.”
Miraculously, he did make it, though doctors said his spine had shattered and he likely would never walk again. A month or two later, he was able to wiggle his toe. It took him a year, but he was eventually able to stand on his own again, and a few years after that he was running a 5K.
Needless to say, Murphy is a fighter. He likes helping others and prefers doing things himself. Loading and unloading bodies in his capacity as a funeral director, though, was still a struggle. He had to rely on others for a while to help him – and then his entrepreneurial spirit was sparked.
“I remembered being on a fishing boat in Alaska with my biology degree as an observer. We were pulling in 100 tons of fish off the back of a ramp of the boat using a wench, and the lightbulb went off,” Murphy said. “When I turned that wench sideways so I could have three pulling positions so I could pull a cot down on each side and take two, or two cremation cases, or a cremation and pickup a cot – it’s all about efficiency these days – I knew I had something.”
His LoadAlone™ lift system will load and unload caskets and cots with only one worker needed, instead of the traditional two-employee method most funeral homes still work under today.
Listen to Murphy’s full story in the latest episode of CFSA’s podcast using the player below, then subscribe to our feed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon to get all our future episodes.