Dennis E. Murphy

Dennis Eugene Murphy was born on Tuesday November 25, 1947, to James and Linda Murphy at the Fullerton General Hospital in Fullerton, California. Dennis was the middle child of 3, joining his sister Cynthia (Cindy) and followed by his brother Terrence (Terry). The family of five lived in a small home in Fullerton near his mother’s family, the Durans.

In the summer of 1952 James and Linda moved their children to Hubbardsville, New York to live on the Murphy family farm with James’s parents. That fall Dennis started Kindergarten at Hamilton Elementary School in Hamilton, New York. Dennis and Cindy took the school bus to and from school. The bus was driven by a Murphy relative who kept an eye on the children and made sure they never left behind the mittens or hats that they wore in the bitterly cold winter. The harsh weather was hard on the adults, but Dennis and his siblings enjoyed playing the snow and the time spent sharing family meals followed by games of canasta and time spent listening to the radio. After a year, the family of 5 moved permanently back to Fullerton but returned to the farm every other year to help bring in the hay, pick the corn and reconnect with the Murphy relatives in New York.

Once back in California, James and Linda purchased a home in Fullerton. The home had a large backyard where many parties and picnics with all the Duran aunts, uncles and cousins were enjoyed. As Dennis grew older his athleticism came out and he played football and baseball. His dad loved being involved in the sports his son played so he often volunteered to be the coach of the team. Dennis and his brother Terry always enjoyed the summertime when they would leave the house right after finishing their chores. They knew that the rule was to be home and washed up for dinner before their father got home from work. Dennis and his siblings went to school close to their home at Maple Elementary School. Upon completion of elementary school, Dennis moved on to Wilshire Junior High School where he was extremely popular and had lots of friends.

In time Dennis started at Fullerton Union High School. He was a good student and joined Future Teachers of America as he had decided that he wanted to teach history. He loved history and read as many books about early America as he could get his hands on. Dennis graduated from high school in 1965 and worked for a brief time before he was drafted into the United States Army.

After completing basic training, in September of 1967 Dennis was deployed to serve in Vietnam. There he operated a Wreaker, which was an enormous triple clutch transmission tank tow truck. When a tank broke down in the jungles or swamps of Vietnam, a Wreaker was dispatched to retrieve the tank and bring it back to base camp for repair. When his tour of duty finished in 1969 Dennis returned home to Fullerton.

Almost immediately upon arriving back in Fullerton he met and married Karen Marie Mason. The couple bought their house in Fullerton in 1974. That home is where they raised their two children, Deanna and Sevren. Dennis was very involved in his children’s lives. When they were small, on weekends he would take them to different parks all over north Orange County to play at the playgrounds and every year at Christmas time there was a day at Disneyland. Dennis and Deanna went to many football games played by either the Fullerton High School Indians or the Fullerton Community College Hornets. Dennis chaperoned overnight field trips for Sevren when he was in elementary school. Dennis even served as Scout Master when Sevren participated in Cub Scouts.

All the while Dennis was raising his family he worked at Menasha Packaging Corporation, a company in Anaheim that manufactured corrugated containers. Menasha was sold to the Weyerhaeuser Paper Company. Dennis worked in several different departments before he settled in Shipping where he rose to the position of Shipping Clerk. Weyerhaeuser operated as a Union Shop and Dennis served as a Shop Steward, a contract negotiating team member and even Financial Secretary of his local. When he retired after 44 years of employment, the company that normally ran 24 hours daily over 3 shifts shut down operations to honor Dennis with a plant wide retirement party.

After retirement Dennis and Karen were able to enjoy traveling around the United States and they even obtained passports with the hope to one day travel internationally. Dennis was the proud “Papa” of his 2 grandsons Nick and Mitchell. It is incredibly sad that he will not have the chance to meet his first great grandchild next year.

Dennis’s wife of 54 years passed away last year, and he never truly recovered from the loss. His grief was intense to the point that he stopped caring enough to take care of himself. The depression exacerbated his condition of vascular dementia to the point he was no longer able to live alone, and he moved into Assisted Living. His depression continued to the point that he stopped eating and ultimately succumbed to his disease.

Dennis is survived by his sister Cynthia Johnson and his brother Terrence Murphy, his daughter Deanna Brake and son in law Erik Brake, his son Sevren Murphy and daughter in law Karyn Murphy, grandson Nick Gomez and granddaughter in law Joseline Quijada, grandson Mitchell Gomez and granddaughter in law Alicia Gomez and his yet to make their debut GREAT GRAND BABY GOMEZ.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to The National Multiple Sclerosis Society, PO Box 91891, Washington D.C., District of Columbia, 20090.