Terrell I. "Terry" Murphy

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Personal Information

Terry Murphy took over as commissioner of the Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services (DARS) on March 1, 2004, when the new agency began operations. Before the creation of DARS, Commissioner Murphy spent more than three decades working at the Texas Commission for the Blind, one of the agencies that merged into DARS.

Commissioner Murphy joined the Texas Commission for the Blind in 1972 as a placement specialist in the Fort Worth office, and he became executive director of the agency in 1997. At the Commission for the Blind, he assisted in the development of a results oriented management system and implementation of the agency's consumer oriented service delivery system.

He was elected as the Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation's Regional Representative for Region VI in 1999, and he became president of the National Council of State Agencies for the Blind in February 2000. He also has served as secretary/treasurer of the Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation and as a member of the American Foundation for the Blind Board of Trustees.

Commissioner Murphy was awarded three Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart during his service in Vietnam, and he is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.