Bravery. Sacrifice. Commitment.

That is what Nick Murphy showed and that is the legacy we followed in providing family law legal services for veterans and active duty members of the Armed Forces. Prior to closing down the Foundation on April 12, 2024, we opened up 260 legal cases for veterans and active duty military men and women, performed 14,954 hours of legal work, and complete $1,059,113.00 worth of legal services for these service men and women through the law offices of Murphy & Dunn, P.C. This is addition to all of the other educational scholarships, military grants, and charitable donations undertaken from 2016 through 2024 through Nick’s Foundation.

It was truly Nick’s bravery, sacrifice and commitment that we carried on in his honor in order to “Be the Man in the Arena”. Although the Nicholas J. Murphy Foundation is no longer active as a non-profit corporation, we will still honor his memory through Murphy & Dunn P.C. by continuing to give military men and women a 20% discount on all legal work performed at our law firm and continue to remember the sacrifice that Nick Murphy made in serving our country. It has been on honor to operate this Foundation for the past 8 years and we were grateful for all of your support over these years.

On November 19, 2016, Red Cross Heartland Hero Nicholas J. Murphy saved the life of fellow Navy Seaman, Breona Mackoff, by pushing her out of the way of the speeding motor vehicle that took his life in a tragic accident in Pensacola, Florida. By sacrificing his own life to save hers, Nick was killed. In addition, Nick’s unselfish sacrifice of organ donation also saved numerous other families by six of his organs being donated successfully to five other gravely ill donor recipients. Nick’s legacy of sacrifice, bravery and commitment continued to inspire others though today through the prior work of the Nicholas J. Murphy Foundation and the legal work previously performed by the law firm of Murphy & Dunn, P.C. To see Nick’s story, play the video below.

The purpose of the Nicholas J. Murphy Foundation was to provide free and reduced rate family law legal services to veterans and active duty members of the Armed Forces in Illinois through the law firm of Murphy & Dunn, P.C., all in honor of Nicholas James Murphy, who was killed on November 19, 2016 while serving in the United States Navy. Nick was a beloved son, brother, grandson, nephew, friend and teammate to everyone he knew and it his spirit that lived on through the works of this Foundation named in his honor.

Nick’s Foundation helped numerous veterans and their families from the legal services provided through the attorneys, paralegals and staff at Murphy & Dunn, P.C. Much of the growth was through the leadership of Nick’s brother, Grant Murphy, who was Executive Director of the Foundation from 2018 through 2022. Grant has now moved to Chicago and is working for the Pat Tillman Foundation, another great military organization helping veterans and their families. All of this was done to honor Nick, and also to pay back those brave men and women of the Armed Forces that risked and sacrificed their life for ours and risked everything by joining the Armed Forces. We honor their service by the work we did for them through Nick’s foundation and the legal work previously done at Murphy & Dunn, P.C. We are proud that we opened up 260 legal cases for veterans and active duty military men and women, performed 14,954 hours of legal work, and complete $1,059,113.00 worth of legal services for these service men and women. It has been an honor to do so.

We had Two major goals at Nick's Foundation:

Foundation News

Foundation News posts have been sporadic based on what was going on at the time. These days, we are concentrating on the legal work being performed at the law firm for our veterans and their families. More will follow.

From the Murphy Families

Thank you everyone for your prayers and support. Our family, friends and the community were all unbelievably supportive in getting the Nicholas J. Murphy Foundation financially up and running back in 2016 by donating their time, talent and money and supporting Nick’s Foundation. For the first six years years from 2017 through 2022, our yearly golf outing, known as the "Fairways for the Armed Forces" was one of the premiere golf outings in Central Illinois. The 6th Annual event was held on June 5, 2023 at Mt. Hawley Country Club. Although we are no longer doing the golf outing, and have shut down the operations at Nick’s Foundation, we continue to honor Nick and support our veterans and active duly military men and women through the reduced rate and pro bono family law legal services we are still completing at Murphy & Dunn, P.C.

We are also very proud to have been a large part of Nick’s legacy at Dunlap High School with the building of the Nicholas J. Murphy Memorial Press Box, built on the varsity baseball field at Dunlap High School in honor of Nick Murphy.

All we can say is THANK YOU for the past eight years of support.

Nick Murphy was a true hero and we are very proud of him. This Murphy family photo was taken at the end of July of 2016, less than four months before Nick was killed. It was our last family photo all together. A lot has happened with our family since then, but we continue to prosper and to honor Nick Murphy and his legacy. Grant Murphy was married to his wife Maria Murphy in June 2018 and they will be celebrating their six year anniversary this summer. Alec Murphy is now married to Ellie Murphy and they are continuing the Murphy legacy through their love. Laney Murphy is now finishing her first year of law school and continues to bless our family and excel in all that she does. Although Theresa Murphy and Ed Murphy were divorced in 2021, they continue to remain friends and are committed to being great parents to their children even as adults and to continue to proudly honor Nick Murphy through their actions.

 Thank you everyone for your support.

The Murphy Family

Nick's Book

Nick’s book was started by Ed Murphy after Nick’s death as a form of journaling. Although it was never finished, it is still posted here on the website because we think it may help someone having gone through or going through a similar family tragedy. If it helps one person, it is worth it. For a much more in-depth view of the journey Ed took after Nick’s death, and to hopefully help you in your journey getting through some of the grief and agony you may be going through, please go to Ed’s Facebook page and go back to November 21, 2016. He posted many posts over those first two years of that grief journey and many consider it to be inspirational and helpful on how to get through some of that grief. Ed’s Facebook Page can be accessed here.

Fairways for the Armed Forces

The Nicholas J. Murphy Foundation is proud to announce that the first six years of the "Fairways for the Armed Forces" golf outings to honor Nick Murphy and to raise money for the military legal clinic, military grants, and educational scholarships were a complete success. The golf outings were held at Mt. Hawley Country Club on the first or second Monday of June each year. The 2018 event was very special because Aaron Bernstein, Nick's actual heart recipient from Nick's organ donation, was the guest of honor and spoke to everyone. Nick would be very proud of everything we did in his honor and we are sure he is smiling down from heaven upon us.

Below is a video taken by Ed Murphy at the end of September, 2016, when Ed went to visit Nick for a long weekend getaway. It was the last time they would be together before Nick’s death. To Ed, this is the best 38 seconds of video he ever took.