NEWS-DEMOCRAT (Belleville, Illinois) 27 October 06 Plainfield teacher is a snake lover (Janet Lundquist, The (Joliet) Herald-News)
Plainfield, Ill.: Of all the animal-fearing people in the world, experts say those who fear snakes are by far the most common.
The fear of snakes - ophidiphobia - is so widespread that psychologist Sigmund Freud determined it was likely a universal human condition. Even movie tough guy Indiana Jones balked at encounters with snakes, a lifelong fear the character developed after he fell into a box of snakes as a boy, depicted in the 1989 movie "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."
Some say years of reinforcement by family members and the media that snakes are bad, possibly prompted by the myths about evil in snakes, contributes to the widespread fear.
Plainfield High School Central Campus science department chair and teacher John Murphy breaks that mold. Not only is he cool and composed around snakes, he seeks them out.
The Plainfield resident has spent most of his career studying and photographing snakes, reptiles and amphibians. His research has taken him to far corners of the earth - the Caribbean, southeast Asia and across North America.
This past summer, Murphy and his wife Kathie vacationed in Belize with friends. While Kathie and their friends went sightseeing, Murphy trudged through the tropical forest looking for animals to photograph.
He was disappointed when he only found six or seven species of frogs and 10 snakes.
"I was somewhat annoyed because it was the middle of the wet season and I was expecting to find a lot of frogs," he said. "That's not very many for a place like that."
While growing up on the west side of Joliet, Murphy spent much of his summers on his grandparents' farms - stalking frogs and snakes, of course.
His interest held through high school and into college, where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in zoology. He went into teaching for the steady work and benefits, continuing his reptile research on the side.
Kathie is used to his work by now, which has involved keeping snakes and other animals at home. When the couple first married, Murphy kept upward of 40 snakes caged in their home.
His personal study of the animals led him to the library at the Field Museum in Chicago, where he now works as a research associate. Murphy has participated in museum field studies and shared his findings in lectures there. He has also written more than 60 articles and two books on his studies.
"I don't know if I'm obsessed," Murphy said. But it's hard for him to explain his fascination with the legless animals.
"To tell you the truth I don't really know. I think I was just born this way," he said, launching into a list of snake characteristics he finds fascinating. "How they came to be that way is not completely understood, and probably very interesting. They're vertebrates but lack legs. They lack eyelids. They have an extremely elastic body and musculature and skeleton."
While he has not done much local research lately, Murphy is looking forward to next summer when he plans to go to Thailand to continue a project for the Field Museum. He has been researching reptiles in Thailand since 1997.
In the past, Murphy has brought in snakes for his students to check out, but because he has been teaching anatomy and physiology classes the last couple of years, he hasn't had the opportunity. He still tells his students about his reptile research though, and sometimes uses the animals as examples when comparing human body function.
"Some are real curious about it. Others are very terrified," he said.
Plainfield teacher is a snake lover