Nancy Kathleen Murphy

Nancy Murphy, Ph.D., (née Ford), lived her life true to the optimism, strong work ethic, and Catholic faith taught to her by her Irish-American immigrant parents. Born in Massachusetts in 1927, Nancy was valedictorian of her class and yearbook editor-in-chief at Framingham High School. She was the first in her family to attend college, which she did on a full scholarship. She graduated from Emmanuel College (Boston) in 1949 and began her career teaching high school mathematics, chemistry, and physics.
Nancy married her lifelong love Thomas Murphy in 1952. She happily supported his twenty-year U.S. Army career that included assignments in Japan, Germany, and the United States. Following Tom’s retirement at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 1966, they moved to Colorado where Nancy taught mathematics for more than two decades at Cherry Creek West Middle School.
She passionately believed that mathematics, properly explained, was a straightforward and joyful subject, and shared her love of numbers and math functions with generations of students. Nancy earned advanced degrees in mathematics from the University of Colorado at Denver (M.A.) and the University of Denver (Ph.D.).
She loved her Ponderosa Hills neighborhood and her fellow Parker residents, her community at Parker’s Ave Maria Church, downhill skiing, and traveling to Europe and Hawaii. Nancy is predeceased by her husband and one daughter and is survived by three children and six grandchildren.
May her gentle and generous soul rest in peace.
Funeral Mass will be held at Ave Maria Catholic Parish, 9056 E. Parker Road, Parker, CO, on Friday, June 28, 2024, at 11:00 a.m.