• Appointed to the Department, July 1, 1893
  • Assigned as a fireman to Truck Co. No. 2, 1893
• Appointed Foreman, Engine Co. No. 6, 1897
• Appointed Captain, January 31, 1900
• Appointed Battalion Chief, March 31, 1905
• Appointed Assistant Chief, March 1, 1909
• Appointed Chief Engineer, February 8, 1910
• Died in Office, November 4, 1929

Highlights of his tenure as Chief Engineer:

• Charged with the replacement of horse-drawn equipment with the newly developed motorized fire engine, 1912
• Urged the formation of a Fire Prevention Bureau to inspect hazards and enforce statutes and ordinances relating to fire prevention, fire protection and fire-spread control
• Finally, in June 1920, the Bureau of Fire Prevention and Public Safety was established by ordinance. Due to insufficient funds to provide permanent personnel, the operation was not as effective as the Chief desired. Initially, Eight years later sufficient budget appropriations could be realized to overcome this deficiency
• Under Chief Murphy's vigorous leadership, the Department had evolved into an efficient and modern Department well regarded throughout the country

In 1928, Chief Murphy's health deteriorated and after a prolonged illness, he passed away on November 4, 1929.

Thomas R. Murphy was only forty years old at the time he assumed command of the Department. He came at a time when the Department was facing another great challenge; the replacement of horse-drawn equipment with the newly developed motorized fire engine.

On July 11, 1912, a unique contest was conducted in the presence of Chief Murphy, the Fire Commissioners, the Fire Committee of the Board of Supervisors, and a large attending crowd. A newly designed motor drawn apparatus, the Nott Motor Engine, was to be pitted against the finest horse drawn rig in the Department. The object of the contest was to determine the swiftest and most efficient of the two.

For several years, Chief Murphy had urged the formation of a Fire Prevention Bureau to inspect hazards and enforce statutes and ordinances relating to fire prevention, fire protection and fire-spread control. Finally, in June 1920, the Bureau of Fire Prevention and Public Safety were established by ordinance. Due to insufficient funds to provide permanent personnel, the operation was not as effective as the Chief desired. Initially, operation was dependent on a continually changing inspection force of detailed members, and it was not until eight years later that sufficient budget appropriations could be realized to overcome this deficiency.

Under Chief Murphy's vigorous leadership, the Department had evolved into an efficient and modern Department well regarded throughout the country. However, in 1928, Chief Murphy's health deteriorated and after a prolonged illness, he passed away on November 4, 1929.

CHIEF MURPHY IS NEAR DEATH

1929 November 4

Fire Chief Thomas R. Murphy last night was fighting a valiant but losing battle against death.

Only the great vitality in the rugged constitution the 58-year-old chief engineer at the San Francisco Fire Department were fanning the spark of life which an incurable heart malady was relentlessly striving to quench.

During yesterday and Saturday Chief Murphy has been unable to take nourishment. Following an examination yesterday morning his physician, Dr. J. H. O’Connor, declared he did not believe Chief Murphy could survive through the night.

At 7 o’clock last night, however, a second examination revealed little change in the Chiefs condition and Dr. O’Connor held hopes that he might stave off death a few days longer.

“Chief Murphy’s condition, is very grave,” he said, “The end may come at any moment. It is only a question of time now.”

Chief Murphy has been confined to his bed for several months following an accident in which he was plunged into the bay while fighting a wharf fire. Extensive inhalation of fumes from the creosote piles, the long vigil and the fall into the bay, caused him to have a breakdown and was the direct cause of the heart ailment from which he suffered.
Source:  San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco, for November 1929, Monday, page 3.

DEATH TAKES FIRE CHIEF THOMAS MURPHY
SMOKE INHALED DURING BLAZE YEAR AGO PROVES FATAL TO HERO OF 1906.

1929 November 5

Stout-hearted Fire Chief Murphy answered yesterday that last still alarm, death!

The grizzled veteran of 37 years service in the Fire Department ended his valiant battle against failing health at 2:20 PM at his home, 870 Bush St. – the home is built up above the fire station.

The end came peacefully, with members of his family and priest of his faith about him.

To the last half hour, when he sank into unconsciousness, the old chief still refused to surrender, just as he had refused time and again to trade his helmet for a pension.

“I’ll pull through – I’ll be back in harness yet,” he whispered.

But the fires had burned out.

So – after months on a sickbed the spark of life – fanned by his rugged courage – finally flickered and went out.

At this bedside or his wife, Annie, and three children, his sons Mervin, 28, and Thomas Jr., 15, and his daughter, Claire 23. His brother Martin J. Murphy, and his sister-in-law, Mrs. Mary Cartan of Oakland were also present, as was Father Orson McMullin of old St. Mary’s Church.

A little apart from the group stood another figure shaken with grief. It was Rudy Rohde, the Chiefs driver for 13 years.

“He was the best friend I ever had; the squarest man in the world,” sobbed the faithful operator.

The body was removed to Halsted’s Undertaking Parlor in Sutter street.

A suggestion that the remains delayed in state and attendance at City Hall the oldest son, who declared he did not believe his father would have desired such ceremonies.

The Fire Commission met last night and immediately adjourned in respect to the memory of the chief.

The Police Commission in the grand jury, also meeting last night, adjourned in respect to the chiefs memory.

Mayor Rolph announced acting Fire Chief Brennan would remain in that assay, pending the funeral.

The services will be held Thursday morning from St. Mary’s Cathedral, Van Ness Ave., and O’Farrell street. A guard of honor composed of the uniform men from the fire department watched over the remains last night.

Last year of Chief Murphy’s life is spent in the brave fight to retain his position in the face of declining health and enter department politics. He has been chief for 19 years.

Although confined to his bed for months, he persistently opposed the suggestion that he retire on a pension, insisting that the bitter controversies that had ranged about his head recently, rather than ill health, were responsible for the proposal.

The commission, did not to look with favor upon eight years leave of absence, maintaining that the chief was unable to return to active duty should be pensioned and his successor appointed.

INJURED IN ACTION

Brennan became the acting chief, and the grey haired veteran, his last fight lost, sank gradually throughout the ensuing weeks. Day by day the reports from his physician, Dr. O’Connor, became less hopeful.

An injury in action brought upon Chief Murphy’s death. He inhaled quantities of smoke from creosote soaked pilings during fire in October, 1928, at Pier 45. For 20 hours the chief has been on duty at the wharf, commanding his men in their stubborn blaze.

His white helmet had been rallying point amid collapsing timbers and falling roofs. He returned home when the fight was won, to complain of severe pain in his chest followed by symptoms of stomach poisoning, which physicians later attributed to the fumes.

For several weeks he was severely ill, but January found him back in saddle, stoutly insisting that he was as good as ever.

Outwardly he was. Through political storms and third alarms he still held up his head, but inwardly his arch foe, Fire, had done its work. The towering frame of the old chief - victor 50,000 blazes - was burned out. Only his old spirit remained – and that passed like a fading amber yesterday.

Thomas R. Murphy was known from the Atlantic to the Pacific as one of the greatest fire chiefs in the United States – which means one of the greatest in the world.

Not only was he held as one of the great ones among his own kind, but men in other walks of life did him honor and paid him tribute, among them and member of the Presidents cabinet, Secretary of the Navy Truman H. Newberry.

A strict disciplinarian no San Francisco chief ever occupied a warmer place in the hearts of men than “Big Tom” Murphy. He never asked one of them to do the thing that he would not do or have not done himself. And he was as always fair and just.

STARTED AS DRIVER

For 37 years Thomas R. Murphy was a member of the San Francisco Fire Department. He started as a driver- a driver of horses, back in 1892, when he was 21 years old. He was driving a team along the waterfront when then Assistant Chief Sullivan offered him a chance to drive a fire team. Young Murphy jumped at it.

His first 24 hour-watch was spent at No. 4 truck, then the assistant chief’s headquarters at Second and Howard streets. When he went home his mother was greatly disturbed. It was the first time young Tom had ever been out all night. His mother wanted him to be a priest. She wanted his brother to be a judge. They both became firemen.

In 1897 Thomas was made a captain. In 1905 he became a battalion chief. It was while he occupied this position that he earned his first national recognition. It was during the great conflagration of 1906. The Navy men from Mare Island were here in force offering every possible aid.  Chief Dennis T. Sullivan was dead – killed on the first day of the great disaster. A Navy officer had stationed a number of his men on a burning building. Murphy advised him to get them away. They can do no good there, he said. The officer demurred.

“You go your way and I’ll go mine,” Murphy told him.” They can do no good there. Some of them will be killed. I’ll not be a party to it.”

The officer gave in. Shortly the building collapsed.

“You take command,” said Navy officer, “you know this game.”

BECAME CHIEF IN 1910

They worked together wonderfully, valorously effectively after that, and months later Secretary of the Navy asked the mayor of San Francisco to have Murphy promoted, if that was possible. It was. He was made assistant chief.

In 1910 he became chief of the department, and since that time, until this illness following injuries at the day and night wharf fire a year ago, he has been an active command, day and night, no matter where he might be in this city, or what he was doing. A second alarm always found chief Murphy racing to the fire.

It would require columns to tell all that chief Murphy has done for the San Francisco fire Department. Always he fought for the advancement of the department had to keep it the most modern in the country. His work was recognized throughout the world, in 1926 he was elected president of the international Association a Fire engineers, the highest honor that can become to a Fire Chief in the world.

WINS DECORATION

In 1923 he was awarded a decoration and a diploma by the government of Paris, and has been honored and acclaimed by many others. During periods when he was in other parts of the country he worked tirelessly in the interests of San Francisco, where he was born in 1875, and bought many an honor to this city.

Through Chief Murphy studiously avoid politics and political entanglements; he never hesitated to step to the forefront in the interest of his department to make it more effective and to protect the rights and interests of his men. And when, after several months of his last illness, and attempt was made to remove the chief because he was bed ridden, the citizens of San Francisco voiced a protest that astonished those who sought to oust the stricken chief.

Aside from his record as chief of the fire department, Chief Murphy had an enviable record for personal heroism and the seating of many lives.
Source:  San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco, 5 November 1929, Tuesday, Page 1, and page 6, column 2.
 

MURPHY FUNERAL TO BE HELD TODAY.

Funeral service for Fire Chief Thomas R. Murphy will be held at 10 o’clock this morning from St. Mary’s Cathedral in Van Ness avenue.

The Board of Supervisors will attend as an additional unit, it was agreed at the meeting yesterday.

Three hundred fireman and police officers also will form part of the cortege.

The body of the veteran Fire Chief will be escorted from Halsted & Co., funeral chapel, 1123 Sutter street, at 9:15 o’clock.  Following the requiem mass at Cathedral, interment will take place at Holy Cross Cemetery. Rev. Richard Gleeson, President of St. Ignatius College, will officiate at the Cathedral services.
Source:  San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco, 7 November 1929, Thursday, Page 6.

DEATHS

MURPHY – in this city, November 4, 1929, Thomas R. Murphy, Chief Engineer S.F.F.D., loving husband of Anna J. Murphy, loving father of Mervin J., Claire E. A. Thomas R Murphy Jr., brother of Martin J. Murphy and Mrs. Frank Murphy and only Mrs. Catherine Creber, a native of San Francisco California, age 58 years. A member of the San Francisco Lodge number three, B. P. O. Elks.

Funeral services will be held Thursday November 7 at 9:15 o’clock a.m. From the mortuary of Halsted & Company, 1123 Sutter street, near Polk; thence you St. Mary’s Cathedral, Van Ness avenue, at O’Farrell Street, where a Requiem high mass will be celebrated for the repose of his soul, commencing at 10:00 a.m. Internment Holy Cross Cemetery.

KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS - the officers and members of the San Francisco Council No. 615 are hereby notified to attend the funeral of our late brother Chief Engineer Thomas R. Murphy S.F.F.D. on Thursday morning November 7th, at 10 o’clock, from St. Mary’s Cathedral Fraternal yours, Dr. E. J. Barnett, Grand Knight, P. S. McCarthy, Financial Secretary.
Source:  San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco, 7 November 1929, Tuesday, page 19.

A battalion of 300 firemen, shown here on Van Ness avenue, is part of part the cortege escorting Chief Engineer Thomas R. Murphy
from the Halsted & Co., funeral chapel, 1123 Sutter Street, at 9:15 o'clock, to St. Mary's Cathedral on Van Ness Avenue at O'Farrell Street.

10,000 ASSIST AT FINAL RITES OF CHIEF MURPHY.
FIRE BELLS MUTED FOR CHURCH KNELL AS CITY PAYS LAST TRIBUTE TO VETERAN FIRE OFFICIAL.
STATE DELEGATIONS JOINED PROCESSION.

1929 November 8

Fire bells were muted yesterday while a church bell tolled its knell and while all San Francisco, the young and the old, the mighty in the lowly, heartfully said farewell to Fire Chief Thomas R. Murphy.

The funeral of the city’s veteran protector, who gave his life to duty, was perhaps as impressive attribute as San Francisco has given to any man. Without pomp, as the famed but modest fireman had wished it to be, it was eloquent in its simple sincerity.

Some 10,000 bared, bowed heads lined the path of the cortege as it moved from the funeral chapel to St. Mary’s Cathedral and to an unpretentious grave in Holy Cross Cemetery.

TRAFFIC DIVERTED.

There were tears, genuine and unconcealed, among officials who respected him as a public servant, among fellow firemen who called him both chief and comrade, and among humble folk who simply called him friend.

Mayor Rolph and three members of the Fire Commission led the procession that marched along Van Ness avenue. All traffic has been diverted and the stillness was broken only by the tolling of the Cathedral bell.

Next came an official delegation including most of the supervisors and the majority of other city officials.  Then,, their uniforms spick and span, their badges draped in black, march battalion of fireman,  and a battalion of police.

POLICE JOIN MARCH.

Acting Chief Charles J. Brennan, Murphy’s expected successor, and all other chiefs of the department led the fireman. Police Chief William J. Quinn marched at the head of his men.

There were other firemen, too, Chiefs and delegations from more than a dozen California cities, representing the International Association the Fire Engineers of which Murphy was a past president, and the Pacific Coast Association of Fire Chiefs.

Fire fighters of an earlier day, members of the Veteran Firemen’s Association, where there to add their tribute, as were other delegations from the Knights of Columbus, Elks and other fraternal bodies.

LEADERS CARRY COFFIN.

The bier of the departed chief was born by six comrades who knew best.  The active bearers we’re Battalion Chiefs Fred W. Bowlan and Rudolph Schubert, Lieutenant Jack Murray, James Ward, Charles Sullivan and Philip Richter and the Chiefs two drivers, Rudolph Rohde and Joseph Medus.

The honorary bearers were friends of the chief for many walks of life. They included Marshal Hale, Dr. Thomas E. Shumate, H. U. Brandenstein, Arthur Dollard, S. T. Balcom, Frank Foran, James Hopkins, James Ward, John Biringham, Ray Taylor, Louis Almgren, Dr. J, H. O’Connor, Percy V. Long, Edward O’Day, Richard Costello, William Hammer and W. H. McMenamy.

For the solemn requiem funeral mass, the Cathedral was packed beyond capacity. The mass celebrated by Rev. Richard a Gleason, S. J., president Of St. Ignatius College, with Rev. John Scanlon as deacon and Rev. John M. Kennedy subdeacon. Monsignor Patrick L. Ryan, the vicar general, representing Archbishop Hanna, and several other priests were in the sanctuary.

Rev. Oliver Welsh of Old St. Mary’s, for years to confidant of the Chief Murphy, delivered the sermon and the eulogy. He made elegant tribute to the Chiefs manly and Christian qualities. Father Walsh stated:

He opened his heart to me as much as any man, and I never heard from his lips an unkind word. He had a mind of his own and a well of his own, but above all he had heart. I think of him today as one of the finest Catholic gentleman I have ever met.

Few knew that always, even at a fire, he always had under his coat a crucifix. He did not neglect his duty to serve his God, but it was always ready to meet his maker.
Source:  San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco, 8 November 1929, Friday, page 6.

LEADERS PAY TRIBUTE TO CHIEF MURPHY.
VETERAN DEPARTMENT HEAD IS MOURNED AS ONE OF THE GREATEST EXECUTIVES IN HAZARDOUS MINE.

High praise, coupled with deep regret, came yesterday from every official source as news spread of the death of Chief Engineer Thomas R Murphy of the San Francisco Fire Department.

First among those to give his words of praise was Mayor James Rolph Jr., chief executive of the city for almost the entire time that Chief Murphy was the head of the fire department. He said;

The whole city mourns the death of Chief Engineer Thomas R. Murphy of the San Francisco Fire Department. He was one of the most widely known and admired fire chiefs in America.

Four over twenty-six years his whole life was wrapped up in the department of which he was for 19 years the able chief.  He was honored by election as chief of the International Fire Chief ‘s Association, and was internationally known as master of the theory and practice of fire prevention and the fighting fires.

San Francisco will always cherish the memory of Chief  Thomas R. Murphy and offers its sympathy to Mrs. Murphy, his daughter and two sons, and to all the others who were near and dear to the man who honored his department and city for so many years through the efficiency of his long and able service.

Following are some of the other tributes pay to the chief:

President William A. Sherman, Board of Fire Commissioners. – It was with deep regret that I learned of the death of Fire Chief Murphy. In many ways his was a remarkable career, and he contributed in large measure to the efficiency of our splendid fire department. He was a stern disciplinarian, but nevertheless a very just man. San Francisco has good reason to be proud of him and his splendid department. The city will miss him.

Charles J. Brennan, Acting Fire Chief –“His name should be inscribed high upon the tablet on the role who’s outstanding characteristics were courage, tenacity of purpose and devotion to duty.”

William J. Quinn, Chief of Police – “I consider that Tom Murphy was the greatest firefighter San Francisco ever had, and one of the greatest fire chiefs in the United States. His death is a great loss to San Francisco.

P. W. Meherin,  Fire commissioner - “Ever since June 21, 1983, Thomas R. Murphy has been active member of the San Francisco Fire Department. For that great length of time he devoted every minute and hour to his duty. On March 16, 1910 he became chief engineer of the department. It can be truly said that devotion to duty;  strength of character and ability marked his outstanding personality. Chief Murphy was internationally known as an outstanding figure in the firefighting fraternity and as such will be long remembered. His death was caused by a strenuous demand on his time and strength.”

Alfred Ehrman, Fire Commissioner – “During the nine years I have been a member of the Board of Fire Commissioners I found Chief Murphy to be a very fine, honest man. He was always on the job, not only in fighting fires, he was one of the greatest fire chiefs. in the world.”

Franck R. Havennerer, Supervisor – It is with deepest regret and sorrow that I have just learned of the passing of Thomas R. Murphy, chief engineer of the fire department. Chief Murphy has served the city of San Francisco long and faithfully and every citizen must bear, with his family, the great loss.
Source:  San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco, 5 November 1929, Tuesday, Page 6, column 1.

More information about Thomas R. Murphy.

Extracted from original sources with grammar and spelling as published.

Back To The Top