Hourly Update

Story and slide show: Former mayor Murphy dies at 72

Lew Murphy, Republican mayor of Tucson for four terms from 1971 to 1987, died Thursday of a heart attack. He was 72. Dubbed "the mayor from central casting" by columnist Jeff Smith, Murphy was a big man with a sometimes gruff visage who used his mastery of parliamentary procedure and a booming voice to bully and cajole a series of Democratic city councils. Beneath the sometimes gruff exterior lurked "a gentle and generous heart," said longtime friend Charles "Punch" Woods, who enlisted Murphy to the board of the Community Food Bank after his retirement from politics. "You can find no better man all the way around," said Murphy's son Grey. Grey Murphy said his father had been battling anemia with transfusions and had "one of his best days in a long time" before a massive heart attack that led to his death Wednesday afternoon. Murphy was born in New York City and moved to Tucson in 1950. He was a pilot in the U.S Air Force and business graduate of the University of Arizona. He also received his law degree at the UA. He was appointed city attorney in 1970 and ran for mayor in 1971, knocking off Democratic incumbent Jim Corbett. He won re-election three times before retiring from politics in 1987. - Read more in tomorrow's Arizona Daily Star