John P. Murphy Foundation.

Charitable foundation established in 1960, which received most of the $13 mil estate of John Patrick Murphy, a Minnesota and Montana railroad lawyer who came to Cleveland, Ohio in 1920 as lawyer for the Van Sweringen brothers, builders of Cleveland's Terminal Tower. Murphy represented the Van Sweringen brothers in their development of real-estate interests, railroads, and the Cleveland Union Terminal on Public Square from 1920-37, and was named executor of the Van Sweringen estate after the deaths of the brothers. Murphy took over the Van Sweringens controlling interest in the Higbee Company, and became president in 1944 and chairman of the board in 1968. The foundation supports primarily local projects in the area of secondary and higher Catholic education, music, hospitals, and the Community Fund. Frank E. Joseph, Murphy's personal attorney, served as president of the foundation in 1985.