Passion for agricultural safety leads to bequest by professor emeritus

During his senior year at Illinois State University, Dennis Murphy needed to find an extra course to complete his degree. It was happenstance that a new course in agricultural safety would inspire his future academic pursuits, his career and his philanthropic priorities.

To ensure the continued support and growth of the agricultural safety and health program in the College of Agricultural Sciences, Murphy and his wife, Christy, have committed the payout of a life insurance policy to bolster the Endowment for Agricultural Safety and Health in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering.

“We are grateful to Dennis and Christy Murphy for their generosity and for thinking of the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering and its students,” said Suat Irmak, professor and department head. “They are great friends of the department, and their gift will help to continue and enhance our ability to carry out our educational and research programs, as well as our extension and outreach mission to deliver research-based and unbiased data and information related to agricultural safety and health to our stakeholders.

“Dennis and Christy’s generous gift will also help educate and train the next generation of students in these important topics and will enable us to continue meeting our land-grant mission in agricultural safety and health, which has been and will continue to be of critical importance. We are thankful to Dennis and Christy for providing this opportunity to help citizens enhance their lives by delivering impactful programs providing for safer operations.”

Murphy, who earned his doctorate in agricultural education from Penn State in 1979, said he always knew he wanted to work in agriculture, but he initially did not know what he wanted to do.

“I had a fantastic teacher my senior year of college for that agricultural safety course and fell in love with the idea of helping people stay safe while working in agriculture,” Murphy said.

After earning both his undergraduate degree and a master’s degree from Illinois State in industrial safety and health with an emphasis in agriculture, Murphy took a job as a safety services representative for Argonne National Labs. There were not a lot of agricultural safety jobs at the time. However, in the mid-1970s, the U.S. Congress provided funds under the Smith-Lever Act of 1914 to create a farm safety position in each state through state Extension services.  

Murphy accepted the position at Penn State and built the agricultural safety and health program from the ground up.

“It was interesting and challenging,” Murphy recalled. “I reached out to colleagues at programs already in existence, attended national farm safety meetings and connected with other extension people in machinery and livestock positions. They helped me to identify things that needed to be done and helped me build the program.”

Murphy eventually earned the title of Distinguished Professor, and in 2014 Nationwide Insurance endowed the role as a professorship. In 2017, Murphy retired after 41 years, but he knew he wanted to do something to ensure that the agricultural safety and health program continues to grow and provide valuable information to those working in the field.

“Agriculture is one of the more hazardous industries in the U.S.,” Murphy said. “Work has been started that makes a difference in the safety and health of ag workers and their families, but it needs to continue. Positions and programs survive across decades because of financial support, especially because things get more costly over time.”

The Murphys have chosen to support the Endowment for Agricultural Safety and Health, an existing fund. It provides monetary support for fourth-year student design projects focused on safety improvements for farmers; programs providing financial support to farmers looking to make safety improvements; safety training programs; discretionary funds for the Nationwide Insurance Early Career Professor of Agricultural Safety, and more.

The couple’s philanthropy is motivated by more than ensuring the continuity of the program and position Murphy played such a large role in creating.

“We just feel like we’ve been very blessed in life, and we want to share,” said Christy, who is a State College native, a Penn State alumna with a degree in early childhood education and an avid knitter. “There are a lot of worthy causes out there and we’ve found a few that are top with us. Penn State is one of those.”

Dennis added, “Penn State was good to me, gave me a career and let me do what I love to do and provided a lot of guidance and support for that. This gift is a way to give back to Penn State so it can keep doing that for others.”

Donors like the Murphys advance the University’s historic land-grant mission to serve and lead. Through philanthropy, alumni and friends are helping students to join the Penn State family and prepare for lifelong success; driving research, outreach and economic development that grow our shared strength and readiness for the future; and increasing the University’s impact for families, patients, and communities across the Commonwealth and around the world. Learn more by visiting raise.psu.edu.