Mary Catherine Murphy (born October 25, 1939) is an American politician and former member of the

Minnesota House of Representatives The Minnesota House of Representatives is the lower house of the Legislature of the U.S. state of Minnesota. There are 134 members, twice as many as the Minnesota Senate. Floor sessions are held in the north wing of the State Capitol in Saint Pa ...

. She is a retired history and social studies teacher at

Duluth Central High School Duluth Central High School, also known as Central High School, was a secondary school located in Duluth, Minnesota, which educated students in grades ten through twelve until seventh and eighth were added after the closing of Washington Junior Hi ...

Duluth , settlement_type = City , nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior), Zenith City , motto = , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top: urban Duluth skyline; Minnesota ...

(1964–97). She is active in

historical preservation Historic preservation (US), built heritage preservation or built heritage conservation (UK), is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance. It is a philos ...

and works as a grounds manager. Murphy was first elected in 1976, and was reelected every two years through 2020. Before the 1982 legislative

redistricting Redistribution (re-districting in the United States and in the Philippines) is the process by which electoral districts are added, removed, or otherwise changed. Redistribution is a form of boundary delimitation that changes electoral dist ...

, she represented District 14B, and before the 2002 redistricting, she represented District 8A. She was chair of the Ethics Committee during the 2007–08 and 2009–10 biennia. Murphy chaired the House Labor-Management Relations Subcommittee for Negotiation, General Labor and Legislation from 1979 to 1982, the Commerce and Economic Development Subcommittee for Commerce and Job Creation during the 1983–84 biennium, the Labor-Management Relations Subcommittee for the Unemployment Insurance and Workers Compensation Division during the 1987–88 biennium, the Economic Development Subcommittee for the Rural Resource Development Division during the 1989–90 biennium, the Energy Committee during the 1991–92 biennium, the Judiciary Subcommittee for the Judiciary Finance Division from 1993 to 1998, and the Finance Subcommittee for the Education Finance and Economic Competitiveness Finance Division during the 2007–08 biennium. She was an assistant minority leader during the 2001–02 biennium. Murphy graduated from Hermantown High School in Hermantown, then in 1961 the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, with a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in history. She later attended graduate school at

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

Macalester College Macalester College () is a private liberal arts college in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Founded in 1874, Macalester is exclusively an undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 2,174 students in the fall of 2018 from 50 U.S. states, four U.S te ...

American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...

, the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

Superior Superior may refer to: *Superior (hierarchy), something which is higher in a hierarchical structure of any kind Places *Superior (proposed U.S. state), an unsuccessful proposal for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to form a separate state *Lake ...

, and the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

in Duluth. She is a former member of the Minnesota delegation to the

Great Lakes Commission The Great Lakes Commission is a United States interstate agency established in 1955 through the Great Lakes Basin Compact, in order to "promote the orderly, integrated and comprehensive development, use and conservation of the water resources of ...

and served on the Minnesota Statehood Sesquicentennial Commission from 2006 to 2008. Murphy's key legislative concerns included labor and union advocacy, women’s economic issues, education, consumer protection, health care, criminal justice, jobs, and capitol projects. Murphy was defeated for reelection in 2022.

References

External links

Rep. Murphy web page

Minnesota Public Radio Votetracker: Rep. Mary Murphy

Project Votesmart - Rep. Mary Murphy profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Murphy, Mary 1939 births Living people People from Hermantown, Minnesota Politicians from Duluth, Minnesota Democratic Party members of the Minnesota House of Representatives Women state legislators in Minnesota College of St. Scholastica alumni 21st-century American legislators 21st-century American women politicians 21st-century Minnesota politicians