Dr. Denis Murphy | |
---|---|
Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly for Stafford | |
In office 22 October 1983 – 21 June 1984 | |
Preceded by | Terry Gygar |
Succeeded by | Terry Gygar |
Personal details | |
Born | Denis Joseph Murphy 6 August 1936 Nambour, Queensland, Australia |
Died | 21 June 1984 Brisbane, Queensland, Australia | (aged 47)
Resting place | Mooloolah Cemetery |
Political party | Labor |
Spouse | Gwendoline May Butcher (m.1959) |
Alma mater | University of Queensland, Duke University |
Occupation | Academic, Historian, School teacher |
Denis Joseph Murphy (6 August 1936 – 21 June 1984), was an Australian Labor Party politician, historian and biographer. Murphy was born in Nambour, Queensland.[1] He was the youngest of nine children and went to an all boys Catholic school, St Joseph's Nudgee College.[1] After graduating, Murphy went on to study high school PE teaching and later became an educator at Redcliffe State High School.[2] As Murphy worked he went back to university and completed his master's degree in Queensland's state enterprises in 1965 at the University of Queensland.[2] In 1966 he left his job as a PE teacher and took on a full-time position as a lecturer at the University of Queensland.[3] He taught there as an academic historian and wrote primarily on the history of the Australian Labor Party.[3]
Murphy became a member of the Australian Labor Party in 1967.[1] During the 1970s, Murphy led a push for party reform, alongside Peter Beattie and Manfred Cross.[2] He maintained his position at University of Queensland whilst he pushed for reform and completed biographies on a number of Queensland ALP figures, notably Thomas J. Ryan and Bill Hayden.[4] In 1980 he became the State Branch President and was subsequently elected to the Parliament of Queensland for the electorate of Stafford at the 1983 state election.[1][2]
Murphy was diagnosed with cancer in 1983 and died in 1984, aged 47.[2] He died before having the opportunity to make a speech as a Member of Parliament.[1] Peter Beattie made a speech instead for Murphy and led a conference of over 200 delegates in a moment of silence in honour of Murphy's life.[5] Murphy died in Brisbane, Queensland and is buried in Mooloolah Cemetery.[2]
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