bachelor's degree in 1925. His son and namesake, Albert A. "Waddy" Murphree, Jr., graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor's degree in 1929, earned a master's degree from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar from 1929 to 1933, and would later serve as a professor of English literature at the university from 1941 to 1974. Murphree, who was the second choice to be the first president of the University of Florida, served longer as the second leader of the university than all but one of its other ten presidents. While he was not the founding president, Murphree built upon the solid academic standards, faculty selections and planning of his predecessor, Andrew Sledd, and greatly expanded and improved upon them; he imposed the university's modern organizational structure and was responsible for the beginnings of many of its traditions. After his death, Murphree was widely praised on the editorial pages of newspapers throughout the state and region. He was credited with helping the University of Florida grow from a small state college into a rapidly expanding regional university in his eighteen years as its president. The two universities that Murphree nurtured in their infancy continued to grow and prosper after his death. In 2010, Florida State University had a total enrollment of over 41,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students; the University of Florida enrolled over 50,000 total students. In a little over one hundred years, the two national research universities, in whose early expansion and improvement Murphree had played a fundamental role, had grown to take their places among the largest single-campus universities in the United States, the University of Florida among the ten largest. In honor of its second president, the University of Florida erected a statue of Murphree on its Gainesville campus, adjacent to such landmarks as the Plaza of the Americas, Library East and Peabody Hall; Murphree is the only Florida president so honored. Florida also named one of its early dormitories, Murphree Hall, in tribute. In remembrance of its third president, Florida State University erected a campus statue adjacent to Jennie Murphree Hall, named for Murphree's wife. See also History of Florida History of Florida State University History of the University of Florida List of Florida State University alumni List of University of Florida presidents State University System of Florida References Bibliography Armstrong, Orland Kay, The Life and Work of Dr. A.A. Murphree, The Record Company,