Walter Murphy Obituary

Walter F. Murphy CHARLESTON - Entered into eternal rest on Tuesday, April 20, 2010, Walter Francis Murphy, husband of Doris Maher Murphy. The relatives and friends of Mr. and Mrs. Walter F. Murphy are invited to attend his Funeral Service at 10:30 A.M. Saturday, April 24, 2010, at Christ St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 4981 Chapel Rd. Yonges Island, SC 29449. The family will receive friends between the hours of 6:00 and 8:00 P.M., Friday evening at the JAMES A MCALISTER FUNERAL HOME, 1620 SAVANNAH HIGHWAY. Walter F. Murphy, Jr. was born in Charleston on November 21, 1929, a son of Walter F. and Ruth Gaffney Murphy. He attended local parochial schools. He was first married to the late Mary Therese Dolan Murphy, and is survived by his wife Doris Maher Murphy, of Ravenel, SC, and his two daughters, Kelly Murphy and Holly Ann Murphy. After graduating from Notre Dame in 1950, he served as a Marine officer and was wounded during the Korean War. He taught government at the U.S. Naval Academy before resigning from his commission and returning to graduate school in 1955. He retained a reserve commission, retiring as a Colonel in 1974 Walter received his Ph.D. in 1957 from the University of Chicago, spent a year as a fellow at the Brooking's Institution, and joined Princeton's faculty in 1958 as an assistant professor. Promoted to associate professor in 1961 and to full professor in 1954, he served as chair of the Department of Politics from 1966 to 1969. Mr. Murphy held the McCormick Professorship of Jurisprudence at Princeton University from 1968 to 1995. Mr. Murphy was a member of the Committee on Judicial Conduct for the Supreme Court of New Jersey, a state Commissioner of Civil Rights, and on an advisory committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. He was also a secretary and later vice-president of the American Political Science Association, a member of the editorial board of the American Political Science Review and book review editor of World Politics. For combat in Korea, Murphy was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Purple Heart, a Presidential Unit Citation, and three battle stars. His doctoral dissertation won the American Political Science Association's Birkhead Award; his first book, Congress and the Court, won the Merriman-Cobbs-Hughes Award from the American Academy of Public Affairs; and his novel The Vicar of Christ won a prize from the Chicago Foundation for Literature. At Princeton, before receiving the McCormick Chair, he was Jonathan Edwards Preceptor, McCosh Faculty Fellow, and Ford Professor. Elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1976, he received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Guggenheim Foundation and three Fulbright awards. In 1995, the Law and Courts Section of the American Political Science Association gave him its Lifetime Achievement Award. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the College of Charleston in 1989. For people wishing to make a donation, checks should be made payable to "Trustees of Princeton University," and need to include a cover letter showing specific information of the fund to which the donation is to be directed: "Terry Murphy President's Fund" (0813536) Alumni and Donor Records Princeton University c/o Helen Hardy P O Box 5357 Princeton, NJ 08543-5357 or to the College of Charleston Foundation 66 George St. Charleston, SC 29424. His guest book may be signed at www.charlestonfunerals.com. Arrangements by JAMES A. MCALISTER, INC. 766-1365. Visit our guestbook at www.postandcourier.com/deaths