From Central High dropout to top of CVCC’s graduating class: A story of transformation
From dropping out of high school to graduating college at the top of his college.
From getting high to staying sober.
From surviving a harsh childhood to thriving in a loving family.
Randy Murphy, 38, a technician in the Russell County School District’s technology department, persevered through his dark past to find a new present and hopeful future.
The transformation hasn’t been easy, but the extra effort has been worthwhile.
“I battled with depression,” he said. “I got a lot of thoughts in my head, … but I don’t think I ever had something so bad that I wanted to go back and do drugs.
“I remember looking in the mirror one time, and it was like I was looking at somebody else. … That kind of tore me up. It was kind of scary.”
Now, he looks in the mirror and likes what he sees.
“I’m happy,” he said.
‘A lost kid’
While growing up in Phenix City, Murphy was mentally and physically abused by his father, he told the Ledger-Enquirer. He was 17 when his dad died in 2000. He was relieved the mistreatment had stopped, but he still mourned his upbringing.
“I never felt like I was good enough,” he said. “… I was a lost kid in high school seeking approval from whomever I could get it from.”
He was 12 when he started smoking marijuana, then added cocaine and ecstasy after high school.
High school classmates thought he was crazy, Murphy said, and predicted he would be dead in his twenties.
Justin Farrar, a mechanic at Valley Turf in Phenix City, was childhood friends with Murphy. They met at South Girard Junior High School and continued to hang out together while attending Central High School.
“We kind of got to partying pretty hard,” Farrar said. “… He got into the drugs real bad, went a little further than the rest of us did.”
Farrar graduated from Central in 2001 and earned a degree from Universal Technical Institute in Orlando. Meanwhile, Murphy dropped out of high school in the summer before his senior year because he lacked the motivation to try to graduate.
“I went on a path of destruction,” Murphy said. “… I didn’t know what to be. I didn’t know how to be. It was just like I had too many questions I didn’t know any of the answers to.”
Drugs. Alcohol. Partying. Dead-end jobs. For years after high school, Murphy searched for purpose.
Then he finally heeded advice from family and friends.
Learning to be ‘great husband and father’
Motivated by his paternal grandmother, Wanda Murphy, he earned his GED at Chattahoochee Valley Community College in 2002, but he still couldn’t hold a steady job.
By 2005, Murphy was drinking alcohol at lunch every day, he said. A friend, Drew Kiker, invited him to Central Baptist Church in Phenix City. The associate pastor was his former South Girard Junior High School football coach, Richie Ashburn.
“I remember (Ashburn) cussing all of us out — the dirtiest words in the world — and now he’s like a different man,” Murphy said.
Murphy figured he could change as well. He got sober not through any rehab program or counseling, but church and willpower.
“The next day,” he said, “I didn’t have any desire for it anymore. … You’ve got to take control of your life. You’ve got to find something that’s bigger than yourself. God, that was my thing. I know some people hate hearing that, but He is the reason I removed that stuff.”
Murphy got married in 2010, had a son in 2012 then divorced in 2013. He remarried in 2017 after meeting his wife, Lauren, at The Fort Church in Fort Mitchell.
“We clicked almost immediately,” he said. “She helped me become myself, figure out who I was and the type of man I want to be.”
Even outside of church, prayer became a source of strength for Murphy. He reads the Bible and makes time for devotionals. Beyond relying on faith, he stopped hanging out with the wrong crowd.
Murphy’s in-laws, Karen and Hank Austin, became like parents to him. As role models, they taught him how to be a responsible adult and a loving family man.
“I didn’t get any of that at home,” Murphy said. “All I knew was abuse and hate and arguing, just everything negative.”
His father-in-law teaches math at Russell County High School. Through 16 years as an educator after a career as a financial consultant, Austin has learned, “Your actions speak much louder than your words,” he said. “It’s easy to say something, but talk’s pretty cheap.”
Austin has seen Murphy walk the walk.
“He’s a great husband and father,” Austin said. “... For somebody who had trouble in high school and ended up getting his GED and graduate at the top of his class in college, he’s one of the most driven people I know. Whatever he decides to do, he’s in 100%. There’s no halfway with him.”
‘Discipline and commitment’
Thanks to encouragement from his in-laws, Murphy returned to CVCC in 2017 for an associate’s degree in information technology. He worked four 10-hour days per week in the maintenance department for the Russell County School District, attended night classes, did homework from 10:30 p.m. until the wee hours of the morning, got some sleep and did the routine again the next day.
He played bass for a local group, the Matt Austin Band, at weekend gigs to make some extra money.
And in between, he squeezed in time to spend with his wife and two children, Chandler, 9, and Ellie, 4, at their home in Salem. Their baby, Rebecca, was born in October.
He considered taking a break from college, but his faith and family gave him the grit to continue. He graduated from CVCC in 2020 with a 3.92 grade-point average, the highest in his class — after having a GPA below 2.0 when he dropped out of high school.
“It was overwhelming,” he said about receiving that year’s CVCC President’s Award. “. . . It felt like a gasp of mountain air. It kind of took my breath away. It just felt great. Everything I went through in my life came together in that one moment.”
Adjunct professor of computer science Peter Bagarella, one of Murphy’s instructors at CVCC, described him as inquisitive and determined.
“He had personal discipline and commitment and support from his family,” Bagarella, an associate technical director at TSYS, said. “I think the birth of his daughter and his marriage helped push him to get more serious.”
Bagarella emphasized to Murphy the importance of setting achievable goals after recognizing change needs to be made. In this case, Murphy focused on boosting his grade-point average by establishing a study routine and sticking to it.
Not only did Murphy come to class prepared and engaged in discussions, Bagarella said, he also helped other students.
In his 14 years as an instructor, Bagarella said, he hasn’t seen a better student.
“He’s just got that something extra, that something special,” Bagarella said. “… When you realize he’s come from being a high school dropout, and he’s trying to take the road to what society says is a success, you’re really rooting for him.”
‘A good purpose’
For the past three years, Murphy has been working in RCSD’s five-person technology department as one of its two technicians serving approximately 3,500 students and 525 employees.
RCSD technology director Fabian Bauerschmidt praised Murphy’s work ethic, knowledge and willingness to ask questions to learn more.
“He is making an impact on our students and teachers every day,” Bauerschmidt told the L-E. “He completes his work orders really fast and with good customer service.”
Bauerschmidt has heard Murphy disclose pieces of his troubled background and marvels at what he has overcome.
“It’s remarkable,” Bauerschmidt said. “You can’t tell what he has been through; you can only tell what a good person he is now.”
Murphy enjoys working with computer networks, a realm of clear right and wrong after growing up in an environment where those distinctions were tough to discern.
“It’s something I have control of,” he said.
And it’s something that helps teachers to teach and students to learn. Cracked screens, broken keyboards and failed operating systems or motherboards are the common computer problems he fixes.
“I enjoy learning new things every day, enjoy helping people, giving them the best chance to excel in what they’re doing,” he said.
Murphy’s career goal is to move up the school district’s ladder to become the IT department’s supervisor. Bauerschmidt’s assessment pegs him higher.
“The sky’s limit,” he said.
This story was originally published January 29, 2022 at 8:00 AM.
