Our History - EF Murphy Inc - Rolls-Royce & Bentley Motor Cars

Earl F “Butch” Murphy Jr

A tribute to a man who’s interest in automobiles fueled his lifelong passion for Rolls-Royce and Bentley Motor Cars. His name became synonymous with these cars as he gained world wide recognition for his work, expertise,  involvement in the Phantom II Society, RROC, RREC and others.

Dad’s passion for cars started at a young age. His first car, a non running 40 Ford coupe, was purchased when he was 14 years old with money he earned growing up on the family dairy farm.  This started his tinkering and the need to figure things out on his own. Before long he was switching engines (even between manufacturers), transmissions, etc and became very interested in performance. This lead up to purchasing a 62 Corvette (my mom and dad dated in this car) which became his weekend bracket race car while still needing to be his daily driver.

Fate would have it when a job opened at the local Chevrolet for a new car prep person in 1969, where he applied and was offered the position.  As he continued in the new car prep area, the dealership saw he was more then capable around cars and offered him a mechanics position.  This was a dream come true.

In 1970 Conners Chevrolet acquired the Rolls-Royce Franchise.  Dad was asked if he would be interested in being a mechanic for the new RR franchise.  Upon accepting their offer, he was sent for factory training on the then current Silver Shadow series of cars.

Six months after Conners Chevrolet took on the franchise, the franchise left the dealership and became Rolls-Royce of Columbus.  My dad followed to the newly formed dealership. There he stayed until 1976. The dealership was sold to Len Immke Buick and one of the original partners, John McCombe opened an independent repair facility specializing in RR cars.  Dad followed John to the new enterprise which grew to become a full restoration shop in addition to keeping with the current cars. This gave him his first opportunity to service older models including pre-war cars.  Pictured is 245AJS, the first full restoration of a Phantom II dad was involved in at McCombe Motors prior to the companies closing in 1984.  Len Immke Buick offered Butch a job but he decided to go in business for himself.  

September 1, 1984 E.F. Murphy, Inc opened.  I began working everyday after high school and later became full time after graduating.  My dad taught me the foundation for doing mechanical restoration and service work, and most importantly taught me his process for working through new problems. He would often say “every problem, though many are routine fixes nowadays, were new at one point”.  He was excited when his grandson Andrew joined the company and said we are 3 generations strong.

Dad always knew the value of information, as it is very hard to come by on these cars. He always made an effort to organize and record all the information we have.  He would take time in the evenings and write out work descriptions and repairs using pictures for details.  He did not want the knowledge he attained, often from the school of hard knocks, be lost if not recorded.  We worked together as we assembled countless volumes of information which has evolved into electronic retrieval of reference photos, notes, every shop manual, and the “how to” repairs.

When my dad became ill we had many conversations.  We talked about when the shop opened in 1984 how it was his shop and I worked for him.  As years went on we became equal as he valued my expertise.  Dad eventually worked as my employee and enjoyed working on the cars and not dealing with the business part of things.  He said “this is now your shop, and your son works for you”.  He reminded me to always listen to the younger generation for new ideas and keep an opened mind for changes.