Tom Murphy (politician)

Tom Murphy

Tom Murphy (* 10. March 1924 in Bremen , Georgia , † 17th December 2007 ) was an American politician of the Democrats . From 1973 to 2002 he was Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives . Nobody had held this office for so long before him.

biography

Murphy was born in Bremen, Georgia, where his father, the town's mayor, ran the railroad's telegraph station. He graduated from local high school in 1941 and enrolled at North Georgia College in Dahlonega , Georgia. During the Second World War he was used as a member of the Navy in the Pacific theater of war. After the Navy, he attended the University of Georgia School of Law , which he graduated in 1960. In the same year he was elected to the local school system and also to the Georgia House of Representatives. He exercised both offices side by side until the end of his work on the school commission in 1965.

During the tenure of Governor Lester Maddox he was elected floor leader of his party from 1967 to 1971 , comparable to a parliamentary group spokesman, and from 1970 to 1973 speaker pro Tempore in the House of Representatives. In 1973 he was elected to succeed George L. Smith as Speaker of the House and held that office until 2002, when he lost his re-election to his Republican challenger Bill Heath . The election of Joe Frank Harris as governor of the state in 1982 is attributed to his political influence . Murphy had a positive impact on the state's economic development during his tenure. In 2004 he suffered a stroke that severely impaired his health and died in Bremen after a long illness.

literature

• Richard Hyatt: Mr. Speaker: The Biography of Tom Murphy , Macon, Georgia, Mercer University Press, 1999

Web links

• The New Georgia Encyclopedia (History of the State of Georgia in Biographies)