Photo of the Month

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September 2008:
Bill Anderson

Bill Anderson began working for G.C. Murphy Co. in a store in Baltimore, Md., in the Depression-wracked year of 1933. He had been working for a competing five-and-10 chain when a nearby Murphy manager recruited him. Frankly, Anderson thought the Murphy store wasn’t as good as the one he was working in.

But Anderson made the leap, spending the next 40 years with the Company. In that time, he was part of the G.C. Murphy Co. as it exited the Depression in better shape than it started; as it survived World War II, when many of its employees left and when merchandise was often unavailable; the 1950s and 1960s, when it expanded into shopping centers and malls; and the 1970s, when it launched its discount division, Murphy’s Mart.

He finally retired in 1974 as senior vice president of sales.

Now in his 90s and vital and active, Mr. Anderson still loves the G.C. Murphy Co., and loaned us several photos from his personal collection.

Store No. 33 in Wheeling, W.Va. in the late 1930s. Note that Murphy’s is getting ready to expand into the former S.S. Kresge Co. five-and-10 next door.

Above and below, Bill Anderson leads a sales training meeting for Murphy store managers in 1971.

Morgan & Lindsey was a Louisiana-based discount chain that G.C. Murphy Co. acquired in 1959. The stores were eventually converted to Murphy’s locations in the late 1970s, but until then, they operated semi-independently. Above, Mr. Anderson (at far left) participates in a ribbon-cutting ceremony with other officials, including Murphy regional manager N.F. Van Tilburg; a county supervisor; Morgan & Lindsey district manager D.M. Allen; and store manager Bill Nolder.

Above, Bill Anderson receives gifts on the occasion of his 25th anniversary with the Murphy Company in 1958.

Customers wait to get into a newly remodeled G.C. Murphy Co. store (location unknown)

Above, Murphy Chairman S. Warne Robinson cuts the ribbon on Store No. 341 in Goshen, Ind., on May 30, 1974. Bill Anderson is third from left.

	Past Photos of the Month: 2008 August June May April February 2007 December October September August July June May April March February

(Previous photo: August 2008, relics of Store No. 12)