LREC sponsored Kerry Murphy on first trip to D.C.
by Josh P. Crotzer
Kerry Johnson now and then. In 1990, Johnson
(center) visited the Jefferson Memorial with fellow South Carolina Youth Tourists.
Columbia attorney and Abbeville native Kerry Murphy experienced a lot of firsts on his trip to Washington, D.C., in 1990. But it was the “fine dining” experience in which a first time quickly became a fourth.
“I’d never had prime rib steak before,” says Murphy, who was 17 during that initial trip to the nation’s capital. “We had a set menu, and my peers were afraid of the red center in a medium rare steak. I loved it, so I had four of them.”
Murphy’s protein-packed dinner was a part of Washington Youth Tour, joining teens from across South Carolina on an exploration of the nation’s capital sponsored by the state’s electric cooperatives. Murphy represented Little River Electric Cooperative.
The South Carolina group of 21 rising high school seniors packed in visits to monuments, museums, the U.S. Capitol Complex and the Smithsonian National Zoo, where they got to see two vegetarian icons of the era, pandas Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing.
“The trip had a tremendous long-term impact on me and gave me a tremendous amount of confidence,” says Murphy, who is now a partner with Murphy & Kilpatrick LLC. “Without that opportunity I had as a 17-year-old, I don't know that I would have been able to say, ‘I can go anywhere.’”
Murphy, who has returned to Washington with his family, does have one regret.
“I wish I could find that prime rib restaurant,” he says.
