Gerry Murphy

GERRY MURPHY, WELLESLEY CELEBRATIONS COMMITTEE’S 2006 DEDICATED SERVICE AWARD

Gerald G. Murphy, “Gerry” retired from 41 years of public school teaching in 2002, 39 years in Wellesley with 36 of those years as a popular U.S. and World History teacher at Wellesley High School (WHS) and has just recently stepped down after an elected term of service on the Wellesley School Committee.  He is being honored for his many years of dedicated service to our community.  

He has been an educator for 49 years and during his years in Wellesley taught approximately 4,500 students and wrote almost 1,000 college recommendations for his students. Additional courses he taught here include Political Science, Economics, Contemporary Issues, International Relations, Sociology, Psychology, Social Anthropology and Humanities.

During his years at Wellesley High School he was honored as the Graduation Speaker in 1979 and 1998, the only person who has done so twice.  

In 1997 he was recipient of the Wellesley Award presented by the Wellesley Community Center and in 1990 received the Redfield Award for Outstanding Teaching, in addition he has been recognized for Outstanding Teaching by the University of Chicago, Carleton College, Williams College, Bowdoin College and Pomona College. Murphy has been elected to the Wellesley High School “Hall of Outstanding Teachers”.

While teaching, other positions he held were as Associate Director of the National Humanities Faculty in 1974-75; Head, Middle School, Tasis, England, 1983-84 and for many years  was the President of the Wellesley Teachers Association (WTA) and Chairman of  the WTA negotiations team.

Murphy is a member of the Board of Directors of the Wellesley Education Foundation and a former member of the Wellesley Cable Access Board. For 4 years he served as a commentator of the Wellesley Town Meeting on Wellesley Cable TV.  At present, he is the Chairman of the Wellesley Democratic Town Committee.

His writings include “K-12 Humanities for Wellesley Public Schools”, “An In-Service Program for the Wellesley Public Schools”; he is co-author of a text “Contemporary Affairs” and is now collaborating on a U.S. History text using Primary Documents to teach U.S. History.

Since his retirement from teaching he is University Supervisor of Harvard Graduate School of Education, a Supervisor of Student Teachers at Boston University (B.U.) School of Education, and a Lecturer at B.U.’s School of Education. Additionally, he is an Educational consultant at Houghton Mifflin Co, McDougal, Littell Division and a member of the Wellesley High School Archives Committee.

Murphy and his wife of 49 years Jean, a Secretary at Wellesley High School, have lived in Wellesley for 39 years and have two sons Stephen, a lawyer living in Wellesley and David, a Director of Marketing Communications in St. Louis, Mo., both graduates of Wellesley High School. They have four grandchildren, Garrett, Sarah, Lily and Jessica.  He holds a Master’s Degree from Boston University.