Mary T. Murphy
Born November 13, 1894, Mary T. (Mae) Murphy was a life-long Branford resident, with a nearly half century teaching career in Branford Schools. In an article in the Branford Review in 1948, columnist Bill Ahern wrote the following: "The T (with a capital) is particularly apt for her middle initial since T stands for teacher; for thoughtfulness; for truth.
"The class of 1948 is to be congratulated. For in the dedication of its yearbook, it has found a cornerstone in Mae T. Murphy, a cornerstone which will bind the bricks of individual achievement with the cement of friendship, a cornerstone that will ever be sturdy-for T also stands for terrific."
After graduating from New Haven Normal School in 1915, Mae began her teaching career at the Paved Street School, a one-room schoolhouse without electricity. In good weather she walked or rode her bicycle the three miles each way, occasionally getting a ride from a friend with a horse and buggy; but in bad weather, she was likely to spend fifty cents of her $50 yearly travel allowance on a hired driver of a surrey with a fringe on top. Besides being responsible for 25 students in first through eighth grades, Mae also kept the pot-belly stove going with wood and coal during the winter and served as the school's janitor, for which she had an extra $25 a year added to her annual salary of $400.
After three years she went on to the Hillside Avenue School and then to the Center School on Main Street (with two rooms!), where she taught sixth, seventh, and eighth grades and was also mistress of the supply room (in the attic). During this period, the Center School ''athletic association" was born. Though hardly a true association, Mae and her colleagues found ways and means of purchasing volleyballs, basketballs, and other equipment for athletic activities and personally transported their students to the baseball diamond in Stony Creek for competitive games with teams from other parts of town. In addition to athletics, crafts became a part of the school day with students ornamenting trays, candlesticks, and assorted knickknacks.
During the 1920's Mae helped to organize the first junior high school on Laurel Street. There, during the Depression, she and other teachers would bring in lunch food for the students. After several years of going into New York each Saturday to take courses at Teachers College, Mae received her bachelor's degree in 1939. That same year she became the freshman algebra teacher at Branford High School, where she remained until her retirement in 1961. Always a demanding but fair taskmaster from her earliest days of teaching, Mae felt perhaps it was time to change her ways with these "grown-up" students but happily soon found herself reverting to her old ways-always demanding and expecting the best and always giving the support and encouragement that was needed. The 1948 BHS yearbook dedication reads, "We the class of 1948 takes great pleasure in dedicating our Milestone to Mary T. Murphy in appreciation for her helpful counselship and constant friendliness during our four years at BHS. Her teaching career encompassed not only the Depression but three wars; and when Branford vets who had left school for the military before graduating returned, Mae always followed up to make sure they took their equivalency exams.
In June 1989, after months of persuasive presentations by former students, the Branford Board of Education voted unanimously to rename the Former Brushy Plain School the Mary T. Murphy School, and Mae attended the dedication on September 24 of that year. Interviewed at her home regarding this honor, she modestly laughed off accolades from former students and said, "I consider myself a normal teacher." Mary T. Murphy died two years later at the age of 99, leaving her younger sister Katherine C. Murphy, with whom she lived. "A normal teacher?" just ask any of her former students.
"The class of 1948 is to be congratulated. For in the dedication of its yearbook, it has found a cornerstone in Mae T. Murphy, a cornerstone which will bind the bricks of individual achievement with the cement of friendship, a cornerstone that will ever be sturdy-for T also stands for terrific."
After graduating from New Haven Normal School in 1915, Mae began her teaching career at the Paved Street School, a one-room schoolhouse without electricity. In good weather she walked or rode her bicycle the three miles each way, occasionally getting a ride from a friend with a horse and buggy; but in bad weather, she was likely to spend fifty cents of her $50 yearly travel allowance on a hired driver of a surrey with a fringe on top. Besides being responsible for 25 students in first through eighth grades, Mae also kept the pot-belly stove going with wood and coal during the winter and served as the school's janitor, for which she had an extra $25 a year added to her annual salary of $400.
After three years she went on to the Hillside Avenue School and then to the Center School on Main Street (with two rooms!), where she taught sixth, seventh, and eighth grades and was also mistress of the supply room (in the attic). During this period, the Center School ''athletic association" was born. Though hardly a true association, Mae and her colleagues found ways and means of purchasing volleyballs, basketballs, and other equipment for athletic activities and personally transported their students to the baseball diamond in Stony Creek for competitive games with teams from other parts of town. In addition to athletics, crafts became a part of the school day with students ornamenting trays, candlesticks, and assorted knickknacks.
During the 1920's Mae helped to organize the first junior high school on Laurel Street. There, during the Depression, she and other teachers would bring in lunch food for the students. After several years of going into New York each Saturday to take courses at Teachers College, Mae received her bachelor's degree in 1939. That same year she became the freshman algebra teacher at Branford High School, where she remained until her retirement in 1961. Always a demanding but fair taskmaster from her earliest days of teaching, Mae felt perhaps it was time to change her ways with these "grown-up" students but happily soon found herself reverting to her old ways-always demanding and expecting the best and always giving the support and encouragement that was needed. The 1948 BHS yearbook dedication reads, "We the class of 1948 takes great pleasure in dedicating our Milestone to Mary T. Murphy in appreciation for her helpful counselship and constant friendliness during our four years at BHS. Her teaching career encompassed not only the Depression but three wars; and when Branford vets who had left school for the military before graduating returned, Mae always followed up to make sure they took their equivalency exams.
In June 1989, after months of persuasive presentations by former students, the Branford Board of Education voted unanimously to rename the Former Brushy Plain School the Mary T. Murphy School, and Mae attended the dedication on September 24 of that year. Interviewed at her home regarding this honor, she modestly laughed off accolades from former students and said, "I consider myself a normal teacher." Mary T. Murphy died two years later at the age of 99, leaving her younger sister Katherine C. Murphy, with whom she lived. "A normal teacher?" just ask any of her former students.