Each year, University of Detroit Mercy honors seven alumni — one from each of the colleges and schools at the University — with a Spirit of Detroit Mercy award.
These honorees are alumni who have marked themselves with distinction in their career and in their personal life. They will be honored at a special ceremony on April 27 on the McNichols Campus. Tickets for the event can be purchased here.
Today, we introduce Randal T. Murphy ’59, the honoree from the College of Engineering & Science. We’ve already written about the College of Business Administration’s honoree, come back over the next week to read about others.
Murphy joined the Manufacturing Development staff at General Motors after graduation, later moving to Ex-Cell-O Machine Tools, Inc. In 1965, he joined Lear Corporation as a design engineer. He stayed with the company for 32 years, holding a number of positions from vice president of Product Engineering to president of Lear’s Chrysler and BMW division. Over his career, he was awarded 12 U.S. patents for seating innovations, which earned him the nickname “Mr. Seat.”
Murphy holds memberships in the Society of Automotive Engineers, the American Society of Body Engineers and is a lifetime member of the Automotive Hall of Fame. He was elected to the Engineering Hall of Fame at Wayne State University and was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from Automotive & Transportation Interiors Magazine.
“Without the University of Detroit Mercy engineering education, I may never have had the opportunity to achieve the career successes for which I’m being honored. The University was convenient — I could commute; it was affordable; the co-op program aided with expenses as well as exposure to real-world engineering experience. Most important, it gave me the tools to pursue a career in engineering.”
A little late for this, but Just ran across this posting. Congrats to Randy Murphy from Kentucky classmate Larry Memering ’59. Hope all is well with you, Randy.