Speaker 1: Wind Down with Janet Kramer and I'm Heeart Radio podcast.
Speaker 1: I want to introduce you to On the Job and
Speaker 1: host Avery Thompson. Avery shares stories of people making changes
Speaker 1: in their professional and personal lives. Whether it's a successful
Speaker 1: athlete transitioning into a new career off the field, a
Speaker 1: fly fishing tour guide trying to introduce a new segment
Speaker 1: of folks to the joys of the outdoors, or a
Speaker 1: stadium beer and hot dog hawker who doubles as a
Speaker 1: CEO of a red hot startup. We'll find out what
Speaker 1: drives them and what lies ahead. These are heartfelt stories
Speaker 1: of people finding their lives. Work on the Job is
Speaker 1: brought to you by Express Employment Professionals. This week, Avery
Speaker 1: talks to a fifth generation funeral director about what's next
Speaker 1: for his business.
Speaker 2: Welcome to On the Job. On today's episode, we're headed
Speaker 2: to Western PA to speak with Brian Murphy, who's a
Speaker 2: fifth generation small business owner and now with his kids
Speaker 2: nearing adulthood. The question is will there be a sixth
Speaker 2: when you're a kid? If you're lucky, death is that's
Speaker 2: a distant thing, something you rarely have to deal with.
Speaker 2: But for Brian Murphy, being the son of a funeral
Speaker 2: home director, meant that death was all around him, or
Speaker 2: more accurately, right in his backyard.
Speaker 3: And we lived behind the funeral home. So as far
Speaker 3: as growing up next to the funeral home, I have
Speaker 3: very vivid memories of my dad going back and forth
Speaker 3: all the time, dinner's being interrupted. It was really hectic.
Speaker 4: Did the funeral home scare you as a kid or no?
Speaker 3: No, I say it never really scared me. It maybe
Speaker 3: intrigued me first short period of time. But I think
Speaker 3: because in our house where we lived, on the first
Speaker 3: floor was the meeting room, so it was filled with
Speaker 3: caskets every day walking home from school, coming in, that's
Speaker 3: the first thing you see. You kind of get used
Speaker 3: to it, and it's like second nature almost.
Speaker 2: It might sound surprising that a young kid would be
Speaker 2: so blase about death, but as Brian sees it, that's
Speaker 2: just part of being a Murphy because for about as
Speaker 2: long as his ancestors have been in these parts, they've
Speaker 2: been in the funeral business.
Speaker 3: Well, like I said, it started with William Andrew Hartzell.
Speaker 3: Then it moved to Fred C. Murphy, who was my
Speaker 3: great grandfather, and then William A. H. Murphy who was
Speaker 3: my grandfather, William F. Murphy who was my father, and
Speaker 3: then there's me.
Speaker 2: According to a study by Cornell University, only forty percent
Speaker 2: of American owned businesses are passed down to the next generation,
Speaker 2: and only thirteen percent make it to the third and
Speaker 2: a measly three percent reached the fourth generation. So what
Speaker 2: the Murphy family has managed to do for five generations
Speaker 2: in Rochester is quite the feat. When you were a kid,
Speaker 2: were you proud of what your dad did?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was definitely proud.
Speaker 2: He could also see that running such a business didn't
Speaker 2: come easy.
Speaker 3: I always, you know, wondered why we couldn't go on
Speaker 3: vacations like every other family, or you know, why my
Speaker 3: dad wasn't at my sporting events or different activities. It
Speaker 3: was because he thought he was the only one available
Speaker 3: to be here, and he just surrounded himself with the
Speaker 3: funeral home and everything else kind of came in second fiddle.
Speaker 4: Did you at any point feel almost trapped or the
Speaker 4: fact that if you didn't want to go into the
Speaker 4: family business, like you'd be letting him or your grandparents
Speaker 4: down or great grandparents.
Speaker 3: More so my grandparents. I feel like I'd be letting
Speaker 3: them down. My Grandpa and I were thick as thieves,
Speaker 3: and as close as we were, that's how close my
Speaker 3: father and I weren't.
Speaker 2: But in fairness to Brian's dad, William Murphy, Brian admits
Speaker 2: that he wasn't in any condition back then to be
Speaker 2: entrusted with such responsibility.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I had my first drink when I was thirteen.
Speaker 3: It just snowballed. By the time I was a senior
Speaker 3: in high school, I was drinking, you know, probably four
Speaker 3: or five nights a week.
Speaker 2: Fortunately, though, soon after getting married, Brian realized the path
Speaker 2: that he was on would only end in tragedy, and
Speaker 2: that's something needed to give now.
Speaker 3: I just decided it was time to get it's sober.
Speaker 3: I entered rehab. I was supposed to be in there
Speaker 3: for thirty days. They let me out after sixteen. Trying
Speaker 3: to prove myself and staying sober and staying straight. Now
Speaker 3: by that time I was thirty six or thirty seven,
Speaker 3: so I had a pretty late start, but I was
Speaker 3: still starting. I enrolled in the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary
Speaker 3: Science when I was thirty seven and graduated right after
Speaker 3: my fortieth birthday.
Speaker 4: Well done, nice, thank.
Speaker 2: You, Brian. Has made sure that his kids know he
Speaker 2: supports whatever it is they choose to do with their lives,
Speaker 2: but regardless of where their roads might lead them. Brian
Speaker 2: also felt a need to sit his kids down and
Speaker 2: have that old Murphy talk.
Speaker 3: And even though I knew, you know, Parkernella probably weren't
Speaker 3: going to come this path, I at least wanted them
Speaker 3: to know that I wanted them to and the door
Speaker 3: was open.
Speaker 4: They said no.
Speaker 3: My son kind of chuckled because we both knew where
Speaker 3: that was going. My daughter, on the other hand, lately,
Speaker 3: within the last probably probably two months, has shown more
Speaker 3: interest than she ever has. So there's a heartbeat.
Speaker 2: For on the job. I'm Averrey Thompson.
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