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2019 SESSION
19106450DWHEREAS, Helen Turner Murphy and W. Tayloe Murphy, Jr., who have served the Commonwealth with the utmost integrity, dedication, and distinction, have received the 2019 Outstanding Virginian Award; and
WHEREAS, the Outstanding Virginian Award is presented by the Outstanding Virginian Committee in partnership with the University of Virginia Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy to recognize leaders like Helen and Tayloe Murphy who have made an indelible mark on the Commonwealth; and
WHEREAS, a native of Emmerton, Tayloe Murphy holds a bachelor’s degree from Hampden-Sydney College and a law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, and he served his country as a member of the United States Navy Reserve; and
WHEREAS, Helen and Tayloe Murphy married shortly after she graduated from Sweet Briar College, and the couple returned to the Northern Neck in the 1960s, when Tayloe Murphy began practicing law in Warsaw; Helen Murphy quickly became an active leader in the community, serving on the founding local board for Rappahannock Community College, which graduated its first class in 1973; and
WHEREAS, desirous to be of further service to the Commonwealth, Tayloe Murphy ran for and was elected to the House of Delegates, representing the residents of the 99th District from 1982 to 2000; he served as the chair of the Committee on Commerce and Labor and as a member of the Committee for Courts of Justice, the Committee on Corporations, Insurance and Banking, and the Committee on Chesapeake and its Tributaries; and
WHEREAS, Tayloe Murphy introduced important legislation to benefit all Virginians and was instrumental in the passage of the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act and the Virginia Water Quality Improvement Act; and
WHEREAS, in recognition of Tayloe Murphy’s experience and considerable expertise, he was appointed to serve as a member of the Chesapeake Bay Commission and the Virginia Code Commission, as well as chair of the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission during its two-year review of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality; he also served as Secretary of Natural Resources under Governor Mark Warner; and
WHEREAS, in addition, Tayloe Murphy has served on numerous local and state civic and professional organizations, as the chair of the Westmoreland County Planning Commission and Westmoreland County Board of Zoning Appeals, as the president of the Westmoreland Ruritan Club, as a director of the Northern Neck State Bank, and as a member of the Southern Growth Policies Board, the Northern Neck Historical Society, the Northern Neck Bar Association, the Council of the Virginia State Bar, and the American Bar Association; and
WHEREAS, Helen Murphy continued her own service to the community and the Commonwealth as an activist for education and environmental health; she was a founding member of the Garden Club of the Northern Neck and president of the Garden Club of Virginia from 1992 to 1994; and
WHEREAS, Helen Murphy served as the president of the Menokin Foundation, created in 1994 to save and interpret the historic home of Francis Lightfoot Lee, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and offered her leadership to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, the Virginia Historical Society, the Virginia Nature Conservancy, St. Margaret’s School, the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, and the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, among other organizations; and
WHEREAS, in 2002, Helen and Tayloe Murphy received the Massie Medal for Distinguished Achievement, the oldest and most prestigious award presented by the Garden Club of Virginia; and
WHEREAS, Helen and Tayloe Murphy have served the Commonwealth with great distinction and an uncommon commitment to the conservation and stewardship of Virginia’s historic and natural resources; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED by the Senate of Virginia, That Helen Turner Murphy and W. Tayloe Murphy, Jr., hereby be commended on their selection for the 2019 Outstanding Virginian Award; and, be it
RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the Senate prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to Helen Turner Murphy and W. Tayloe Murphy, Jr., as an expression of the Senate of Virginia’s admiration for their long legacy of exemplary service to the citizens of the Commonwealth.