Patrick Murfin

From Philosopedia

Patrick Murfin (17 March 1949 - )

Murfin was born in Twin Bridges, Montana, and was reared in Cheyenne, Wyoming. He currently lives in Crystal Lake, McHenry County, Illinois, and is a life-long social activist for peace, civil rights, labor, and other causes.

"I attended college at Shimer College, then located in Mt. Caroll, Illinois, and Columbia College in Chicago as a creative writing major," he tells those who ask, adding, "I escaped both institutions without a degree of any kind."

Murfin was an active member of the Industrial Workers of the World, one of the Wobblies, and served as General Secretary-Treasurer, organizer, editor of the Industrial Worker, and co-authored with Fred Thompson The IWW: Its First Seventy Years.

An active Unitarian Universalist, Murfin has served his Congregational Unitarian Church in many capacities and is involved in many UU e-lists and denominational activities. Asked if as a Unitarian he additionally labels himself in any way, his response is, "I generally don't try to categorize myself theologically. I'm apt to scatter in any direction like dandelion seeds in a whirlwind. What was it Emerson said? 'Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds'."

He is President of the Interfaith Council for Social Justice in McHenry County, a founder of the annual Diversity Day Festival in Woodstock and is the spokesperson of the McHenry County Peace Group. He is a leader of the McHenry County Democratic Party and has run unsuccessfully in Illinois for Crystal Lake City Council and the McHenry County Board.

Author of a book of poetry, We Build Temples in the Heart (Boston:Skinner House Books, 2004), Murfin has an online blog, Heretic, Rebel, A Thing To Flout.

Murfin is married, is the father of three daughters and the grandfather of four. He retired after 20 years as an elementary school custodian and currently ekes out a living patching together part-time jobs.

{WAS}