Orrice Abram Murdock, Jr.

Who was Orrice Abram Murdock, Jr.?

Orrice Abram "Abe" Murdock, Jr. was a United States Representative and Senator from Utah. Born in Austin, Nevada, he moved with his parents to Beaver, Utah in 1898, attended the public schools and Murdock Academy in Beaver, and the University of Utah at Salt Lake City. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1922, commencing practice in Beaver. He was a member of the Beaver city council in 1920 and 1921, and was county attorney in 1923-1924, 1927–1928, and 1931-1932. He was city attorney of Beaver from 1926 to 1933, and was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for district attorney for the fifth Utah district in 1928.

Murdock was elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-third Congress and was reelected to the three succeeding Congresses, serving from March 4, 1933 to January 3, 1941. He was not a candidate for reelection in 1940, having become a candidate for the U.S. Senate; he was elected as a Democrat to the Senate in 1940 and served from January 3, 1941, to January 3, 1947; he was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1946, and resumed the practice of law and engaged in agricultural pursuits and livestock raising. From 1947 to 1957, he was a member of the National Labor Relations Board and in 1960 was a member of the Atomic Energy Labor-Management Relations Panel.