Iowa Ledger (2021) - Tippie College of Business

NEW YORK
LONDON
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“
The day will come when not
a single book and not a single person
will aver that accountancy is not
a field for women. Speed the day! ”
—MARY E. MURPHY
ACCOUNTING FORUM, APRIL 1941
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In Margaret Hoskins’ 1994 book “Mary E.
Murphy’s Contributions to Accounting,”
fellow Cal State faculty member Earl
Kennedy Cobb remembered her as very
popular with students. “Most of them were
perceptive enough to recognize that [she
was] not a run of the mill person,” he said.
“It is often said that some people live before
their time,” Cobb continued. “It is so true
of Mary Murphy. During her era … public
accounting had very few spots for a woman.
How she developed such respect for a
profession that had its door closed to her
for the most part, I do not know.”
“She was indeed a pioneer.” •
Photo summary
1 “Butler’s Capitol,” built by
Mary Murphy’s greatgrandfather,
Walter Butler,
who was also Johnson County
Sheriff for a time in the 1800s.
The hotel hosted Iowa’s fourth
legislative session roughly
at the corner of Clinton and
Washington Streets. Photo
courtesy of the State Historical
Society of Iowa, Des Moines.
2 Mary Murphy’s childhood
home in Iowa City, now
The Burford House Inn. The
Murphy family built and owned
the house from 1902-1968,
after which it was sold to
Byron Burford, a longtime UI
art professor and friend of Kurt
Vonnegut famous for his circusthemed
work. Photo courtesy of
Burford House Inn.
3 University High School
commerce room in
1926. The high school was
established in 1916 as a
laboratory for the UI College
of Education for the training
of principals, superintendents,
and teachers. Along with
the University Elementary
School, it was closed in 1972
due to lack of funding. Mary
Murphy graduated from the
experimental school in 1923.
4 University of Iowa
campus in 1925, when
Mary Murphy attended as
an undergraduate studying
accounting.
5 Murphy’s senior class
photograph from
the Hawkeye yearbook.
Mary Murphy is listed but
not individually identified.
Photo courtesy of Student
Publications, Inc.
6 The New York City skyline
with the Graf Zeppelin
flying overhead in 1928, the
year that Mary Murphy began
studying at Columbia University
for her master’s degree.
7 The letter of
recommendation that
the business school’s first
dean, Chester A. Phillips, wrote
for Murphy to enter the Ph.D.
program at the London School
of Economics and Political
Science.
8 The S.S. President
Harding, the steamship
Mary Murphy sailed on across
the Atlantic Ocean to England in
1936—a four-day journey.
London Bridge in
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1938, the year Mary
Murphy earned a doctorate in
accounting from the London
School of Economics and
Political Science.
Members of the Murphy
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family. From left: Mary’s
mother Anna Butler Murphy,
Mary E. Murphy, Mary’s step
brother Frank Murphy, and her
father, William F. Murphy. Photo
courtesy of Margarget Hoskins.