IT TAKES A LIFETIME

Ex-Little Rock administrator steered city's growth

Jack Murphy knew he didn't want to be a farmer, so he studied business administration. He used his degree to help a city grow.

Murphy, 96, started working for the city of Little Rock in 1954. By the time he retired in 1989, had served as assistant finance officer, finance officer, finance director and treasurer and deputy city manager.

"I had responsibility for managing bond issues for so many big projects in the city of Little Rock," he says. "The widening of streets like Markham and Main and then building the expressway, buying up homes and right-of-ways. I bought the first home out on Eighth street for about $3,000. It was in the right-of-way for what is now I-630. I got bonds for the city so they could finance the airport terminal. One of the big projects, most recently, was the renovation of the area down by the Marriott Hotel."

Murphy was also involved in clearing the way for construction of Chenal Parkway and widening Mississippi Street and Cantrell Road, the development of Robinson Center Music Hall and the Statehouse Convention Center and buying land for parks throughout the city.

"Before 1965, the city had a very poor rating for selling their bonds," Murphy says. "One of the things I'm proud of is that I went to New York City ... I went to Moody's Investment Company with all the information I had prepared on the city's finances and the city's previous bond issues and how they had paid them and what our taxation possibility was, and we obtained AA grading for our future bondage."

Murphy, who grew up on a farm in Monticello, moved to Little Rock in 1953 after living in San Diego for a few years following his discharge from the U.S. Navy.

Jobs were hard to come by then, and he worked briefly in television sales before securing an accounting job with the railroad, which soon moved its accounting office to St. Louis and left him again searching for work. Little Rock's city finance officer was looking for an assistant and he found Murphy's application through the employment office.

After retirement, Murphy stayed on as a consultant and also began a part-time job with the Little Rock Port Authority, built using a voter-approved bond initiative.

"I was contacting industries throughout the United States, trying to interest them in moving to Little Rock and telling them what advantages we had and were available to them at the Little Rock Port Authority," he says.

As his one-year consultant contract came to an end he anticipated a slower pace.

"Before I moved out of City Hall, the city manager came over to my office and said, 'Murphy, we want you to take over management of MEMS because we're firing the manager," says Murphy, who has continued his involvement with MEMS over the years. "Their budget was $3 million and they were $75,000 in the hole. I had a terrible time bringing them back into balancing a budget."

That was likely not the hardest thing he had ever done, however.

During the war, Murphy was assigned to a destroyer, the U.S.S. Meade, and was sent to the waters around Hawaii.

"My responsibility in time of war was in the gun turret. They made me a hot shell man first and then later the pointer -- in other words the man who pointed the gun and fired it -- and it was a huge gun and there were five men in this gun turret," he says.

He has vivid memories of the ship going into "general alarm," which meant he was moved forward in preparation for shooting down enemy crafts.

"Every time, I would just say, 'Dear Lord, don't let this be the last one,'" he says. "I can laugh about it now, but not so much then."

He also remembers clearly hearing that a voice had come over the ship's radio saying that the U.S. had dropped "a huge bomb" on Japan. He thought that meant he would be headed home soon.

"We were wrong about that. It took several months," he says.

At the end of the war, lights that had been blacked out to prevent enemy attack were turned on and he was surprised to see all the ships around his in the port.

"They even set off a few firecrackers. That's a big memory in my memory bank," he says.

Bands struck up as his ship arrived in San Diego in November 1946. He and his late first wife, Lenora, were wed two days later. They were married for 48 years.

Murphy used to run six miles before work, completed several 5Ks, then 10Ks and was working toward a marathon but gave up when he retired from the city of Little Rock and took on new responsibilities.

"I do it just enough now to keep my body exercised," he says.

He started dance lessons in 1951. He and his wife, Andrea, married in September 2020, enjoy dancing together.

"I belong to four dance clubs, including the American Legion which dances Sunday night," he says. "It's been a high point of my life. I've met a lot of nice people."

If you know an interesting story about an Arkansan 70 or older, please call (501) 425-7228 or email:

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