University President Bruce Murphy and his wife Jeanne have decided to honor Dr. Murphy’s parents’ lifetime commitment to higher education by donating $10,000 and creating a scholarship.
They decided there was no better way to honor Murphy’s parents than to help students the way Murphy and his parents were helped.
The name of this scholarship is “The Dr. George L. and Mrs. Ruth Amrhein Murphy Endowed Memorial Scholarship in Honor of the Parents of Dr. Bruce Murphy.”
Murphy believes that without his parents’ help, he would not have become the Nicholls State University president and he would not be as dedicated to higher education as he is today.
“Since taking this position, I’ve been thinking a lot about what got me here and what enabled me to take this position. Clearly my parents had a lot, if not everything, to do with that,” Murphy said.
Murphy said, “I thought about donating to the Nicholls Foundation right away.”
Since Murphy became the president, he wanted to honor his parents in a way that could help other students the same way his parents were helped. They both had gotten scholarships and went to college despite the obstacles that stood in their way.
George L. Murphy struggled as a child and worked to earn his degree, and Ruth Amrhein Murphy was different than most women who grew up in the same time that she did.
Murphy’s parents were very involved in their higher education and their sons’ lives. His father would give him everything that he could not have.
“Somebody got my father a scholarship, so he was able to go and work on his education through scholarships. He went through to get his Ph.D. and after, he wrote books, worked with the space program with the early astronauts and was a human factors engineer,” Murphy said.
Murphy said, “My mother was ahead of her time. She got her college degree. She translated all that she learned and all that she had into her work. She volunteered, and she was very involved in scouting. She got fulfillment in inspiring other kids.”
Both of Murphy’s parents were scout leaders and were very involved with Murphy and his brother’s time as scouts. This is why one of the credentials for the scholarship is to be in the girl or boy scouts.
Murphy said, “My father really benefited from having the opportunity to go to a high-quality, affordable, public higher education. It was through philanthropy of people who gave the scholarships that he was able to do that.”
David Boudreaux, the Executive director of the Nicholls Foundation, said that the minimum endowment is a $10,000 gift to the Nicholls Foundation, and that money is permanent.
“All scholarships are similar, but each is unique. What makes this one different, first of all, is that this is the first time that an incoming president has endowed a scholarship right out the gate, so to speak,” Boudreaux said. “I think this shows a great commitment to Nicholls students.”
This scholarship recognizes the leadership qualities in students. To qualify for this scholarship, a student must be TOPS qualified, hold a 3.25 GPA, and be either a male Eagle Scout or a female who has been awarded the Girl Scout Eagle Award.
The tuition at Nicholls has been rising the past couple of years, so all the scholarship money that is donated is helping students.
Murphy and his wife are more than happy to donate to the Nicholls foundation. They plan on donating the same amount every year and continuing the contribution to the Nicholls Foundation.
“Being here reflecting on what has happened caused me to really value my parents putting me on a path to where I could be the president of a university,” Murphy said.
Murphy said, “I really respect them because of their journeys and the role that higher education played in their journeys.”