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