This obituary is part of a series about people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. Read about others here.

Dr. John Murray, an internationally recognized expert in pulmonology, helped the medical world understand a deadly condition known as acute respiratory distress syndrome.

On March 24, the condition he helped define led to his death. He was 92.

The University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, where Dr. Murray was a professor emeritus, said the cause of death, “sadly and ironically,” was respiratory failure resulting from acute respiratory distress syndrome caused by the novel coronavirus. He lived in Paris for much of the year with his wife, the novelist Diane Johnson.

Dr. Murray served as chief of pulmonary and critical care from 1966 to 1989 at the institution now known as Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center. After retiring in 1994, he continued to work as an attending physician in the intensive care unit and to teach.