Mahwah Firefighter: 9/11 Inspired Me To Join

Eleven years ago, Mahwah resident Tom Murphy was not the same man he is today.

On September 11, 2001, Murphy was working as a stockbroker in NYC.  As a result of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Murphy lost his uncle, Michael SanPhillip of Ridgewood, who worked for Sandler O’Neill, and three friends – a college roommate’s father, Richard Keane, a rugby teammate, Tommy Knox, and a college friend, Jimmy Riches. Feeling lost, he, like so many others across the country, did not know how to cope with the national tragedy and his own personal loss.

Though nothing more than his uncle’s wallet has been found in the Trade Center rubble, the family held a memorial service for Michael SanPhillip on October 8, 2001. That same day, Murphy’s cousin was killed in a car accident.

“Those two deaths are what changed something in me,” he said.

“I knew I had to do something different with my life.”

In April of 2002, Jimmy Riches’ body was discovered. Riches was a firefighter “riding with Engine 4,” Murphy said.

“I was at his funeral at St Patrick’s Cathedral and saw all the firefighters lined up on Fifth Ave. There is a statue [of Saint Frances] on the 51^st St. side, and it is inscribed with his prayer that begins ‘Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love.’”    

“It occurred to me then that I need[ed] to serve my community and country like the thousands of firefighters lined up around the Cathedral.”

He joined the Mahwah Fire Academy and graduated in August of that year. He has been a Co. 1 volunteer firefighter in Mahwah ever since.

Though he liked his job as a stockbroker, Murphy said juggling it with the academy and with his newfound commitment to helping others wasn’t working. So, when he heard of an opening at a Hewlett- Packard location in NJ, he applied.

“I had previously seen them mentioned in an article about being a large company that supports their employees being emergency responders,” he remembered.

“I am still with HP and there has never been a conflict between community emergencies and work.”

Murphy, who was married in 2007 and had a daughter in 2008, said service has always been an important component of his, and his wife’s, families. Murphy’s grandfather was a volunteer firefighter in Bronxville, NY, his father was a Vietnam veteran, and his wife’s father was an officer in the Colombian Army. He thinks the passion for giving back is already alive and well in his three-year-old daughter.

“My daughter loves the firehouse and…loves to tell all her friends in preschool her daddy is a fireman,” he said.

“I am happy to be living an example of service for my daughter.”

Six weeks ago, Murphy’s father died from an illness that was traced back to his service in Vietnam.

“Not once did he ever complain about what the army did to him. Instead, he always stressed that he was really proud he served,” Murphy said of the founding member of the Vietnam Veterans Chapter in Rockland County.

“It means a lot to me today that he was really proud that I chose to become a fireman.”