John R. Murdock

Who was John R. Murdock?

John Robert Murdock was a U.S. Representative from Arizona.

Born in Homestead near Lewistown, Missouri, Murdock attended the public schools. He graduated from State Teachers' College, Kirksville, Missouri, in 1912 and received a bachelors degree at the University of Iowa in 1925. He attended graduate school at the University of Arizona and at the University of California at Berkeley.

He was an elementary school teacher and principal in Missouri before he went to the University of Iowa. He was an instructor in the Normal School at Tempe, Arizona, predecessor of Arizona State University. He was then Dean of this institution from 1933 to 1937. He wrote several textbooks on history and government.

Murdock was elected as a Democrat to the 75th Congress and to the seven succeeding Congresses, serving from January 3, 1937 to January 3, 1953. He served as chairman of the Committee on Memorials, Committee on Irrigation and Reclamation, and Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1952 to the Eighty-third Congress.

He was married to Myrtle Cheney Murdock, who popularized the accomplishments of Constantino Brumidi.