Roderick Murray was born in Christchurch, New Zealand and reared in Scotland and South Africa. He earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry and physics from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. He earned a master's degree in organic chemistry from the University of South Africa and then a medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1941. During World War II, he served for five years in the South Pacific as an infectious disease control specialist in an Army medical laboratory.
