Whine Down with Jana KramerBrian Murphy Is a fifth generation funeral director. Will there be a sixth?
Wind Down with Janet Kramer and I'm Heeart Radio podcast. I want to introduce you to On the Job and host Avery Thompson. Avery shares stories of people making changes in their professional and personal lives. Whether it's a successful athlete transitioning into a new career off the field, a fly fishing tour guide trying to introduce a new segment of folks to the joys of the outdoors, or a stadium beer and hot dog hawker who doubles as a CEO of a red hot startup. We'll find out what drives them and what lies ahead. These are heartfelt stories of people finding their lives. Work on the Job is brought to you by Express Employment Professionals. This week, Avery talks to a fifth generation funeral director about what's next for his business.
Welcome to On the Job. On today's episode, we're headed to Western PA to speak with Brian Murphy, who's a fifth generation small business owner and now with his kids nearing adulthood. The question is will there be a sixth when you're a kid? If you're lucky, death is that's a distant thing, something you rarely have to deal with. But for Brian Murphy, being the son of a funeral home director, meant that death was all around him, or more accurately, right in his backyard.
And we lived behind the funeral home. So as far as growing up next to the funeral home, I have very vivid memories of my dad going back and forth all the time, dinner's being interrupted. It was really hectic.
Did the funeral home scare you as a kid or no?
No, I say it never really scared me. It maybe intrigued me first short period of time. But I think because in our house where we lived, on the first floor was the meeting room, so it was filled with caskets every day walking home from school, coming in, that's the first thing you see. You kind of get used to it, and it's like second nature almost.
It might sound surprising that a young kid would be so blase about death, but as Brian sees it, that's just part of being a Murphy because for about as long as his ancestors have been in these parts, they've been in the funeral business.
Well, like I said, it started with William Andrew Hartzell. Then it moved to Fred C. Murphy, who was my great grandfather, and then William A. H. Murphy who was my grandfather, William F. Murphy who was my father, and then there's me.
According to a study by Cornell University, only forty percent of American owned businesses are passed down to the next generation, and only thirteen percent make it to the third and a measly three percent reached the fourth generation. So what the Murphy family has managed to do for five generations in Rochester is quite the feat. When you were a kid, were you proud of what your dad did?
Oh?
Yeah, I was definitely proud.
He could also see that running such a business didn't come easy.
I always, you know, wondered why we couldn't go on vacations like every other family, or you know, why my dad wasn't at my sporting events or different activities. It was because he thought he was the only one available to be here, and he just surrounded himself with the funeral home and everything else kind of came in second fiddle.
Did you at any point feel almost trapped or the fact that if you didn't want to go into the family business, like you'd be letting him or your grandparents down or great grandparents.
More so my grandparents. I feel like I'd be letting them down. My Grandpa and I were thick as thieves, and as close as we were, that's how close my father and I weren't.
But in fairness to Brian's dad, William Murphy, Brian admits that he wasn't in any condition back then to be entrusted with such responsibility.
Yeah. I had my first drink when I was thirteen. It just snowballed. By the time I was a senior in high school, I was drinking, you know, probably four or five nights a week.
Fortunately, though, soon after getting married, Brian realized the path that he was on would only end in tragedy, and that's something needed to give now.
I just decided it was time to get it's sober. I entered rehab. I was supposed to be in there for thirty days. They let me out after sixteen. Trying to prove myself and staying sober and staying straight. Now by that time I was thirty six or thirty seven, so I had a pretty late start, but I was still starting. I enrolled in the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science when I was thirty seven and graduated right after my fortieth birthday.
Well done, nice, thank.
You, Brian. Has made sure that his kids know he supports whatever it is they choose to do with their lives, but regardless of where their roads might lead them. Brian also felt a need to sit his kids down and have that old Murphy talk.
And even though I knew, you know, Parkernella probably weren't going to come this path, I at least wanted them to know that I wanted them to and the door was open.
They said no.
My son kind of chuckled because we both knew where that was going. My daughter, on the other hand, lately, within the last probably probably two months, has shown more interest than she ever has. So there's a heartbeat.
For on the job. I'm Averrey Thompson.
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