Saturday, April 19, 2025
By all accounts, Bill Murphy was an extraordinary man. Starting this year, his daughters will celebrate their late father’s philanthropy with the Bill Murphy Memorial Scholarship for an Oceanside High School senior every year.
Murphy’s daughters Erin Molinet, Colleen Arnold and Melissa Freilich have raised over $12,000 so far, out of their $15,000 goal. The funds will give $1,000 to one graduating senior each year. This is the first year they will give out the scholarship, in honor of their father’s passing on April 18, 2024.
“He was just an amazing guy,” said Kevin O’Toole, Murphy’s best friend since they were five years old. “Every day someone needed something, he was doing it. It wasn’t just once a year. It was every single day. The world should be full of Billy Murphys.”
Murphy raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, for children with disabilities over the course of his lifetime. He would walk down the street, see someone in a wheelchair, strike up a conversation with their parents, and end up building extensions, ramps and handrails on their house, in addition to raising money that was given directly to the family.
He received Mercy Man of the Year and Freeport Man of the Year, as well as several other awards. He also worked with St. Jude and Maryhaven Center of Hope.
Murphy was born in Lakeview, but spent much of his childhood being raised in Oceanside. He went to St. Agnes for high school, entering as a freshman. His friend Dan Lennon was in the same class, both graduating in 1969.
“He was always fun to be with,” Lennon said. “As an adult he went into the Marines, and he came back. He was just one of the most generous people I know, with his time, and his ability to help people who needed help at difficult times. He was just really great.”
After graduating high school in 1969, Murphy went into boot camp for the Marines, followed by bomb squad training. From 1970-71 he served as a Bomb Squad Point Man on the ground in Vietnam.
“He saw a lot of action, a lot of trip wires that he walked through, so he had a lot of lucky days,” said his wife Patty.
Murphy returned in 1971 and took on a job as mason and the philanthropy he was known for.
“He was a Marine,” Molinet said. “He was a mason. He was a loving dad. He was a loving grandfather. He gave to his community just endlessly. He was one of the most amazing people I’ve ever known.”
Murphy had a way of building community around him.
“He could get anybody to do something,” Patty said. “That was his personality. He would say to a plumber, ‘I need you to come help me with this,’ and they would go right at it and charge him nothing.”
The scholarship committee is looking for someone who embodies his legacy. Applicants, which number 13 this year, must complete an application and an essay on how they’ve impacted their community and how their community has impacted them.
“We’re looking at people who can tell a story of how they’ve given back within their school community, home community,” Arnold said. “Our dad always loved the underdog, so we’re looking for someone who embodies that.”
