1935 – 2015

AUBURN — Thomas Ignatius Murphy Jr., 80, of Auburn, passed away peacefully on Thursday, Dec. 31, surrounded by family.

Tom is survived by his children, Cynthia Murphy and husband, Scott Kloster, of Birmingham, Mich., Tom Murphy III and fiancé, Maria Palumbo, of Newbury, Mass., Michael Murphy and wife, Allison, of Redding, Conn., and Sheila Royston Murphy of Vienna, Va.. Tom’s beloved grandchildren, Hailey, Connor, Julia, Kathryn, Patrick, Kevin, Maeve, Mackenzie, Gwynnethe and Mark Anthony range in age from 10 to 22. Tom is also survived by his sisters, Mary Elizabeth Titus of California, Ann Phillips of New York and Sheila Murphy of New York.

He was predeceased by his wife, Nancy Murphy; his son, Peter Murphy; and his brother, Arthur Murphy.

Hailing from Great Neck, N.Y., Tom graduated from Xavier High School, a Jesuit institution in the Chelsea section of New York City, before heading to Boston, where he met his future wife, Nancy Butler, and earned his undergraduate degree from Boston College. After college, Tom served as second lieutenant in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Korea.

Tom was a lifelong entrepreneur — first in New York, working side-by-side with his brother, Arthur, running Murphy’s Moving & Storage, where they frequently were hired by New York’s elite. One of his favorite moving jobs was packing and storing Teddy Roosevelt’s Sagamore Hill household goods and hunting trophies, which required great care.

Tom moved to Lewiston in 1969 to give his wife and children a more balanced life, and he bought Gordon’s Hobby House, which he operated for ten years before opening All Season’s Lawn & Garden in Auburn. A lifelong sports enthusiast, he coached his sons in fly football, coached and was president of Elliot Avenue Little League, and during his children’s high school and college years, he was an active spectator at their soccer and field hockey games. Tom and Nancy shared a love for gardening and spending time at Taylor Pond.

For more than 30 years, Tom was a lector and usher at St. Joseph’s Church in Lewiston, while also serving as a member of the Parish Council. During his retirement years, Tom was a volunteer mediator in the consumer protection division of the State of Maine Office of the Attorney General, became a certified consumer protection arbitrator with the Better Business Bureau, volunteered as a guide for the Audubon Society and served on a crew for the Great Falls Balloon Festival.