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10 Years After 9/11, Patrick Murphy's Life Continues to Be Celebrated

The memory of the Chicago Heights and Flossmoor native who died in the attack on the Pentagon is kept alive by his family, friends and Marian Catholic High School.

A leader as a football player.

An accomplished student.

A devoted family man.

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A dedicated Navy man.

Patrick Jude Murphy was so many things to so many people, it’s no wonder his life is still being honored 10 years after his death.

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The Chicago Heights, IL, and Flossmoor, IL, native was on a Navy Reserve assignment with the Navy Command Center at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. He was among those killed when terrorists flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon.

Murphy, 38, left behind a wife and two young sons, along with many friends and family members who continue to keep his memory alive.

Murphy’s brother, John, and a former schoolmate of Patrick, Carol Burke Swanson, are among those who continue to celebrate Patrick’s memory as the 10-year anniversary of his death approaches.

That memory is of a popular, family-oriented man who had so much more to give to the world.

Swanson, director of alumni relations at , grew up with Patrick and attended and with him.

“Patrick was a happy, easygoing guy who never got in trouble,” she said. “I can still see him walking through the halls of Marian High like it was yesterday."

Patrick grew up on Winston Lane in Chicago Heights — Winston Lane now has a brown street sign that reads: Patrick Murphy Way, September 11 2001 — just a block away from . The family moved to Flossmoor after Patrick went college.

“Every time the (Marian) band played, we could hear the music,” John Murphy said. “My older brother was into football and wrestling, my sisters didn’t play any sports. I remember as a kid walking to Pat’s football games and the bonfires at Marian when the football season began.”

The High School Years

A love for football ran deep in the Murphys’ hearts, as Patrick's and John’s father was a season ticket-holding Chicago Bears fan. It was only natural Patrick would dedicate himself to excellence on the football field. He made the varsity football team for as a sophomore.

Many of his former teammates and classmates remember Patrick’s days as a Spartan. His never-give-up attitude and constant encouragement were instrumental to the highly ranked high school football team. But John remembers at least one instance in which he may have gotten his big brother into trouble.

“I went looking for him after a game at the end of the season,” John said. “I walked into the locker room and the coach was having this intense talk with them. They turned and looked at me. I knew at that moment I shouldn’t be in there. So the coach had to walk me out of the locker room and back over to the stadium after the game.

“He wasn’t happy he had to take Patrick’s little brother, while he was in the middle of a talk, back to the bleachers. It’s one of those times you remember.”

Swanson remembers Patrick's big return to his alma mater at the school’s 10-year class reunion.

"He introduced his wife (Mako) to everyone as he was dressed in his military gear," she said. "He was happy to be back home, sharing stories of his military service to us.”

Bond of Brothers

Patrick had two sisters, Kathleen and Susan. His brother John was eight years younger, but the age gap didn’t stifle the two boys’ relationship.

“Being with girls all the time, he enjoyed having a little brother around,” said John, thinking back to all the things he and Patrick would do together. “I would always get football gear on so we could practice. … When he went running, I would take my 10-speed (bike) just to keep up with him. He enjoyed having a younger brother. He got a chance to have fun.”

Even with Patrick leaving for college, joining the Navy and sometimes backpacking around Europe, the brothers found a way to make their time together count.

“Every Friday night it became a tradition for us to go see a movie,” John said. “The last movie I saw with him was Pearl Harbor.”

John said there are certain voids Patrick’s death left that can never be filled.

“His knowledge was his best quality,” he said. “He did a lot of reading. Probably the hardest thing about Patrick’s death is not being here when I have a question. I think about giving him a call, then realize I can’t.”

Like his brother, John ended up a military man. He joined the Marines.

“My brother didn’t mind that I went in the service; he was irked I was in the Marine Corps,” John said. “My brother always loved ships and naval stuff. He chose the Navy because he was patriotic. … He loved ships and he wanted to be in there for 20 years.”

The Marine Corps-Navy rivalry was personal to the brothers.

“When (John's fellow Marines) found out my brother was a naval officer, it was downhill from there,” John remembered. “Pat tried to visit me while I was in boot camp. He got denied because you can’t have visitors. He was a higher-ranking officer than the person telling him he couldn’t come and visit me. Of course, when my drill sergeants found out, I had to do extra push-ups and sit-ups.”

The Military Mindset

Patrick’s father, Donald, passed away when John was a junior in high school. Donald Murphy was a dentist and was instrumental in starting the oral surgery department at in Chicago Heights.

Donald had fought in the Korean War, and John still draws parallels between his father and Patrick.

“My sister-in-law would ask Patrick the same question my mother asked my dad: ‘What happens if we get attacked?’” said John, who immediately remembered his father’s response. “‘You will take care of the family, I’ll go do what we have to do.’ If you are part of the military you have to do your job—bottom line.”

Then John remembered a similar talk between Patrick and his wife.

“Mako asked Patrick, ‘What if you get called to war?’ He answered her, ‘You’ll take care of the boys and I’ll be off to war.’”

John thought back to the football field in explaining his brother’s way of thinking when it came to the military.

“If a guy knocks you down, you get back up to protect your quarterback,” he said. “Pat was an offensive guard. He had to protect his quarterback. So you get up and take him out. You still get back in.”

The Last Phone Call

On Sept. 1, 2001, John got a call from his brother. Lt. Cmdr. Patrick J. Murphy was on a two-week Reserve assignment with the Navy Command Center at the Pentagon.

“His final call to me was that day,” John said. “It was very short because the call got dropped. He asked me to get something out of his car because he was donating it to the Salvation Army at the time. I tried calling him back. I couldn’t get in touch with him. That day was the last time I spoke with him.”

At 8:46 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, American Airlines Flight 11 flew into the north face of the World Trade Center’s North Tower in New York. Less than 20 minutes later, United Airlines Flight 175 flew into the south face of the South Tower. America was put on alert.

The nation was wondering what might happen next. The answer came more than 30 minutes later as Flight 77 crashed into the western side of the Pentagon. By 10:10 a.m., part of the west side of the Pentagon had collapsed, and almost 200 lives were lost.

“I heard the news from my mom (Joan),” John Murphy remembered. “She had called me, they couldn’t get a hold of Patrick. One of the news channels had reports of three planes hitting the Pentagon. My mom kept calling my brother and couldn’t get a hold of him. 

“I was at a customer’s house when the attacks were going on. The customer had the television on when the report came in that the Pentagon was hit. I didn’t think my brother was still there because I spoke to him on September 1st. When I got the call from my mom, I told my boss, I really didn’t think anything seriously and wanted to go on to my next client. My boss told me, ‘You think you should be there for your mom?’ So I was.”

John Murphy remembers when his family received the news they did not want to hear. 

“Between Tuesday and Wednesday, the Navy had a worldwide check-in of all Navy personnel. By Wednesday evening, the Navy showed up at my mom’s place. The chaplain told us (Patrick’s) classified as Missing In Action. It was a shocker. I was reliving the same feelings when they told me my dad passed away."

Responds

Carol Burke Swanson remembers many of the details of 9/11.

“I was ready to come to work at when breaking news came over Good Morning America about a plane striking the first tower,” she said. “My sister and her husband live in New York, so I called her right away after the first tower got struck, because her husband works in the city. She said she had just hung up with him and everyone was fine. I felt much better.

“Then I saw the plane hit the second tower. I kept asking myself, ‘(Is) this really happening?’ When I got to , some of the staff didn’t even hear what was going on in New York. They turned on the televisions and followed the news the rest of the day.  

“Later, the next afternoon, the news began to list names who were missing,” Swanson continued. “I remember seeing the name Patrick Murphy. I never thought twice that it was our Patrick Murphy. I didn’t know where he was. I later found out he was on a special task team at the Pentagon with chemical engineering. He only met once a year with this group. A few days later, got a phone call from the Murphy family confirming Patrick was killed at the Pentagon.

“We just didn’t want to believe it. We kept asking, ‘Are you sure it was him, there are a lot of Patrick Murphys.  I called a few people that graduated with us in 1981. A grade school reunion was coming up the next year, in 2002, from in Flossmoor. This pushed us more to have that reunion,” Swanson said. 

“We were all so upset—‘How could this happen and why?’ He left two children and a wife. This still is devastating to families after 10 years. I still picture Patrick just smiling and being Patrick.

“His classmates and myself asked, ‘What can we do?’ We wanted to do something in memory of him. We sat down with Sister Paul at . Since (Patrick) loved football, why not a flagpole inside the athletic field—a place Patrick loved the most and had a passion for. 

“During his high school years at , you would always find him on that field,” Swanson said. “He loved being there the most. This was a perfect fit for him. We decided to have a flagpole dedication the next year in September of 2002 and dedicate that flagpole.”

The flagpole dedication was attended by Patrick’s mother, wife and two sons, as well as many of his former classmates and football teammates.

Patrick Murphy Scholarship

But didn’t stop there in honoring Patrick Murphy.

“Sister Paul (Sister Mary Paul McCaughey, president of ) brought up the idea of a yearly scholarship in Patrick’s name,” Swanson said. “Everyone loved the idea.

“Each year a student is provided scholarship money in his memory. It’s not a full scholarship yet. We started it when it was a little under 25,000. The criteria came from his mother, brother and sisters. Patrick’s parents got divorced when he was a young teen. It was a tough time for him. The family decided to award the Patrick Murphy scholarship to a student that came from a single-parent home,” Swanson said.

“One of the first awardees was one of our classmate’s daughter. Our classmate’s husband had passed away. ... The mom was a good friend of Patrick’s, and here her daughter was able to attend .

“Anyone can donate any funds to invest in a student from a single-parent home,” Swanson said. “You can donate online at www.marianchs.com, click on online giving, register, then there will be an option for the Patrick Murphy Memorial Scholarship. You can also mail a check payable to with Patrick Murphy Memorial Scholarship noted in the memo section. The scholarship recipients would write a letter to Patrick’s sons at the end of the school year letting them know what it meant for them to have this scholarship.”

At Patrick’s memorial service, Swanson said, people marveled at what he accomplished in his 38 years.

“Once he completed college, he went in the service,” she said. “Pat had a master’s in marketing from Northwestern, he had a Naval college degree, plus he had a B.A. in chemical engineering. When he got that, he was learning nuclear engineering in the Navy.”

Moving On

Swanson said the heartache over Patrick Murphy’s death has not gone away for those who loved him.

“It is still difficult for Patrick’s mother to talk about what happened 10 years ago,” she said. “She does not like to do interviews regarding her son’s death. His brother, John, speaks for himself as he has done his best to move on. John’s smile is contagious. As he speaks about his brother, his eyes light up with pride. A brother’s bond was cut short too soon.” 

John Murphy remembers coming to grips with his brother’s death.

“It took over a year after 9/11 before I had the balling tears," he said. "I don’t know if it was the toughness of being a male or how I respond to stuff. It finally hit me, missing him."

John still remembers the very day the full weight of his brother’s death struck his heart.

“It was Christmas Eve 2002,” he recalled, “A year and three months (after 9/11), that’s when it let loose, knowing I will never see him again.”

will have a moment of silence in Patrick Murphy’s memory at 7 p.m., before its football game on Sept. 9.

A Run For The Fallen will be held in New Jersey (where Patrick lived with his family in 2001) on Sept. 23, 24 and 25.

This is one of a series of 9-11 portraits assembled by the Patch network for 9/11: The Decade After, a special report for Huffington Post. Find more photos on the Action America Facebook page.

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