Earl Finbar Murphy

Professor of Law Emeritus

November 1, 1928 - July 23, 2006

After finishing first in his law school class, Professor Earl Finbar Murphy practiced law for two years in Indianapolis, and then became a graduate law fellow at Yale. Subsequently, he joined the Ohio State law faculty as a law teacher in 1969, having taught previously at SUNY-Binghamton and Temple University School of Law.

He was Courtesy Professor of Natural Resources for the Ohio State College of Food, Agriculture, and Environmental Sciences, an adjunct professor in the Ohio State College of Engineering, and a member of the faculty of the Atmospheric Sciences Program of the University. He was also a visiting professor at Indiana University and at the University of Arizona.

Professor Murphy held memberships in several academic and professional honoraries and served the State of Ohio on a number of environment-related committees.

Professor Murphy wrote several books, including Water Purity; Governing Nature; Man and His Environment: Law; Nature, Bureaucracy, and the Rules of Property: Regulating the Renewing Environment; Energy and Environmental Balance; Quantitative Groundwater Law, and also published numerous book chapters and periodical articles.

He taught Environmental Law, Natural Resources Law, and Land Use Planning Law.