Thomas A. Murphy, 90; Led GM During Period of Strong Sales, Oil Shocks
Thomas A. Murphy, who as General Motors Corp. chairman and chief executive led the automaker during the oil-price shocks of the 1970s, died Wednesday, the company announced. He was 90.
Murphy died of natural causes at a hospital in Boynton Beach, Fla., said Brian Akre, a spokesman for GM.
In 1978, during Murphy’s tenure, GM’s sales reached an all-time high of 9.55 million cars and trucks sold worldwide. The company last year sold 9.2 million autos, the most since the 1978 peak.
“He was the prototypical GM chairman: tall, stately and will be remembered as a true gentleman,” said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich. “He was very disciplined, methodical,” said Cole, whose father, Ed Cole, was GM’s president until 1974.
Murphy was born Dec. 10, 1915, in Hornell, N.Y.
He joined GM as a financial trainee in 1938 after graduating from the University of Illinois with a degree in accounting. He worked his way up in the corporation’s financial operations, as assistant treasurer, comptroller and treasurer. In 1970, he became vice president of the car and truck group.
He held the top posts at the world’s largest automaker from December 1974 until December 1980, Akre said. He served in the Navy during World War II, reaching the rank of lieutenant, GM said.
Murphy was a “disciple” of Alfred Sloan, the GM executive who in the 1920s crafted the company’s strategy of multiple brands to capture the widest possible group of buyers, Cole said. “He was typical of GM financial guys: not very flamboyant, but he really knew how to read a balance sheet.”
Murphy helped GM begin to revamp its model lines with more economical types of cars that used less gasoline after business was threatened by the two oil embargoes of the 1970s, Cole said.
He was a key force in the decision to introduce the Chevette, a European-designed subcompact, in the United States.
The first so-called oil shock occurred in 1973, when the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries imposed an embargo on oil bound for the U.S. and other countries that supported Israel in the Yom Kippur War.
The second came in 1979, after the overthrow of Iran’s Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi prompted that nation, the world’s fourth-biggest oil producer, to cut off exports to the U.S. Murphy was succeeded as chief executive in 1981 by Roger B. Smith and remained a board member through the 1980s.
He is survived by his wife, Catherine Rita “Sis” Murphy, daughters Catherine Murphy and Maureen M. Fay, son Thomas A. Murphy Jr., eight grandchildren and 10 great- grandchildren.
Funeral services are planned for Saturday in Boynton Beach, and Murphy will be buried on Long Island, N.Y., the company said.
