5 minute read
FROM SHOW-ME STATE TO SUNSHINE STATE
FROM SHOW-ME STATE TO SUNSHINE STATE
Meet Kevin Murphy, Vice President of Marketing and Communications
In April 2020, Ave Maria University welcomed Kevin Murphy as the new vice president of marketing and communications. He joins us from Kansas City where he previously worked for Catholic Charities with President Ice as the executive director of marketing and communications and where he rebranded the140- year-old organization. Sitting in his sunny office on the West side of the Canizaro Library, he shared a bit about himself, his plans for communicating Ave Maria University’s message, and his Catholic faith.
Q: How did you first hear about Ave Maria University?
A: Ave Maria University came on my radar when they first discussed launching it. I remember seeing it in a news story, and as soon as I saw the concept, I was hooked. I remember thinking, ‘Wow, I’d love to be a part of that.’ I wrote a letter to Tom Monaghan saying, “Look, you are going to need someone in marketing.” I don’t recall if I sent that letter or not, it was so long ago.
Q: All these years later, what brought Ave Maria University back on your radar?
A: Ave came back up when Chris Ice took the position of president — he was my boss at Catholic Charities. A few weeks into his new role, he gave me a call and said, ‘Boy, we could really use your services down here.’ I’ve lived in Lee’s Summit (just outside Kansas City) my whole life but wanted to be open to God’s will. I have always wanted to put my skills in marketing to work for the Church. I even started a side business called Mount Nebo Market ing. Mount Nebo was the mountain Moses was allowed to ascend and view the Promised Land from. I used this as a reminder to Catholic companies to first start out with a solid strategy, a view of where they want to go, so they don’t wander in the wilderness. This is the same principle I’ll bring to Ave Maria.
Q: You revamped Catholic Charities of Kansas City, how did you go about that process?
A: It’s an arduous process. Anytime you revamp, you have to ask basic questions: What is it?
What is its original intent? Has there been mission drift? It’s the same thing I’m doing now. What is Ave Maria University? Where is it, and where does it want to go?
I accomplish this through an internal/ external audit process where I ask people: Why are you at Ave Maria University? What were the motivating factors that drew you? What should Ave Maria University be?
What has it done well? What has it done poorly? Then, I overlay what people are saying internally with what people say externally - those not affiliated with the school. Oftentimes, people think they are one thing and then the external people tell them something completely different. This allows you to see disconnects and accurately position your company.
Q: What do you see changing about the way Ave Maria University presents itself and its mission?
A: Tom Monaghan named this university Ave Maria. The name is pregnant with meaning (pun intended). When you read Luke’s depiction of the encounter between Gabriel and Mary, he is sent to her, greets her with a royal title (Full of Grace), and then announces her vocational call – to be the Mother of God. Mary, because she is full of grace, gives her free assent to this call.
This is the model for all students. Come to Ave Maria University, seek to be full of grace, so that you too can clearly see your calling and assent to God’s plan in your life.
Q: Tell us about your wife Linda and your five kids.
A: In our first 10 years of marriage, we had five children. Our oldest is 26, and the youngest, 16.
My wife is the daughter of a southern Baptist preacher, yet she made me the Catholic that I am.
I met her during my last semester of college, and when we were married, she wasn’t Catholic.
I remember creating this little basement office in our first home together, which was all about trying to understand the Baptist faith. I had grown-up Catholic, so I felt I knew the Catholic faith, but I wanted to find out what this Baptist thing was all about. I would use my time on the road traveling for business to listen to Protestant preachers. I was listening to a radio program called the Bible Answer Man and he was the most vehement anti-Catholic I’d ever heard on the radio.
I would be so mad listening to him, but I would listen. At home, I would dig into his assertions and discover, ‘That’s not right,’ and I would bound-up the stairs and share my discoveries with my wife. She’d respond in a kind of detached fashion, ‘Yeah, that’s interesting,’ and then I would go back down and keep studying.
One day, I came home from a long business trip; it was about midnight. I was slowly getting into bed so as not to disturb her, and she turned to me and said, ‘I guess I don’t believe what you think is wrong anymore.’ I was so tired I said, ‘Okay, good,’ and went to sleep. I got up the next morning and was shaving and wondering, ‘Did that really happen?’ The first thing that came to my mind was: You are just like the disciples, you couldn’t stay awake for one hour. She finally gives an indication she’s open to the Catholic faith, and you say ‘okay good,’ and go to sleep!
I went back into the room and asked, ‘Did you really say that? She responded, “yes.” A few weeks later she joined RCIA and converted on Easter Vigil 1999.
Madeleine O'Rourke, '20
