Newton Fire Chief Greg Gentile announced that Chief Murphy, 86, died at Newton-Wellesley Hospital on December 9. Chief Murphy began his career in the Newton Fire Department in 1961, after serving in the Navy, and rose through department ranks, promoted to Captain, Deputy Chief, Acting Chief, and Chief of the Department in 1995. He retired in 2003 after 42 years of service.
Chief Murphy left a legacy of service to Newton as well as a multi-generational legacy of family members who became firefighters, including three of his sons – Edward Murphy, Jr., Michael Murphy, and Richard Murphy – and his three nephews, Robert Cadman, Mark Cadman, and Russell Cadman.
In a Boston Herald article written by his daughter, Wendy Murphy, in celebration of her father’s 80th birthday, she noted her father’s initial attraction to firefighting began when he was a very young child. His father had died when Chief Murphy was three, leaving his impoverished mother with six small children. Fortunately, the firefighters in the station across from his apartment took an interest in his well-being, offering him support and meaningful life models. According to Newton firefighter Chuck Proia, who also continues a family legacy in the Newton Fire Department, people who knew Mr. Murphy as a child believed he would grow up to be Chief. Among those were Mr. Proia’s parents, who noted that their son, even in his childhood, knew where every firebox in Newton was located. It was Chief Murphy who hired Mr. Proia – the beginning of Mr. Proia’s 27-year service in the Newton Fire Department.
After 9/11, Chief Murphy presided over the changing role of the Department from a focus on fighting fires to providing first-responder medical assistance and a range of rescue missions. Today those services comprise most of the Department’s activities. Nonetheless, Mr. Proia recognizes that Chief Murphy was the consummate firefighter and describes him as “a good Jake,” the highest praise one firefighter can bestow on another.
Chief Murphy’s son, Mike, who resembled his father, and followed in his firefighter footsteps, landed a role in a proposed television series, Newport RI: The Series, cast as Lt. Seven “Hydrant” Maguire, a firefighter. It was released in 2014 as a movie.
Another of Chief Murphy’s great admirers, outgoing City Councilor Rick Lipof, a long-time member of the City Council’s Public Safety and Transportation Committee, met regularly with the Chief. He explained that the Fire Department ran smoothly and efficiently under Chief Murphy, but it was the humanity that the Chief brought to his job that was exceptional. “I felt that he was a friend and enjoyed working with him,” Mr. Lipof said.
