Charles S. Murphy

Charles Springs Murphy (August 20, 1909 – August 28, 1983) was an American attorney who served as the White House Counsel to U.S. President Harry S. Truman from 1950 to 1953. Prior to this, he was a staff member in the office of the legislative counsel of the U.S. Senate from 1934 to 1946 and Administrative Assistant to President Truman from 1947 to 1950. Subsequent to the Truman Administration, Murphy served as Under Secretary of Agriculture, from 1960 to 1965; and chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board from 1965 to 1968.

Biography

Early life Murphy was born on a farm in Wallace, North Carolina. During the Great Depression Murphy worked his way through college at Duke University and its law school as a night mail clerk at the post office in Durham.

Career After receiving his law degree in 1934 he went to Washington, and with the help of a former Duke Law School dean who had left the university to work in the Justice Department, he obtained a position helping to draft bills for the Senate leadership. In this role, he was called on to help draft a resolution establishing the Senate War Investigating Committee, which would later be chaired by a senator from Missouri, Harry S. Truman, beginning their friendship and long association. He was one of the entourage at Truman's October 1950 meeting with General MacArthur on Wake Island during the Korean War. The following April when the president finally relieved MacArthur of command he advised Truman on public relations tactics. During the Truman years he was among the small group of advisers and friends called the "little cabinet" that the president sat with in late-evening meetings to develop policy and legislative strategy. When Truman left office in 1953, Murphy entered private law practice in Washington with the firm of Morison, Murphy, Clapp & Abrams.

Personal life Murphy married Katherine Chestney Graham of Hillsborough, North Carolina in 1931 and they had three children, including C. Westbrook Murphy. He died on August 28, 1983, in Annapolis, Maryland at age 74. He was survived by his son and two daughters. His wife Kate predeceased him by several months.