Tim O`Keefe, secret operative, Navy officer

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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution / Thursday, Nov. 7, 2002
D9
O B I T UA R I E S
Murphy blames defeat
on altered House district Tim O’Keefe, secret
A L P H A R E T TA
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t h o s e d a y s , g o ve r n o r s
appointed legislative leaders
— but lost it when he didn’t
follow the governor’s orders.
Sanders’ successor, Lester
Maddox, named Murphy his
House floor leader, after
which he became the speaker
pro tempore. His Democratic
colleagues elected him
speaker in 1974.
He said he never aspired
to higher office, either.
Instead, he reveled in the
rhythms of the House: the
drone of the clerk reading
bills, the questions over
amendments, the debates
before big votes. He occasionally considered retiring,
but always decided to run for
one more term.
“It never crossed my mind
it would last this long,” he
said.
He never had a close race
for re-election until 2000,
when he squeaked past
Heath by 505 votes out of
13,000 cast. After Heath
announced he would run
again this year, Murphy
pledged to campaign harder.
But when legislative districts
were redrawn, he agreed to a
plan that called for the 18th
to take in new territory in
Republican-leaning Paulding
County on the far western
edge of Atlanta’s suburbs.
“If I’d wanted to shaft my
friends, I could have fixed a
district that would have been
perfect for me,” Murphy said
Wednesday. “But nobody’s
ever accused me of that.”
Murphy found he had little
in common with his new
constituents. They weren’t
swayed by his gavel pencils
or by the promise by “Mr.
Tom,” as he’s known in his
native Haralson County, to
deliver big projects.
“I tried to change to meet
the changing times,” Murphy
said, his voice lowering
slightly. “I’ve tried to live and
do what my conscience told
me was best.”
_____________________________________________________________________________________
by Atlanta’s rapid growth.
In his early years in the
House, Murphy’s hometown,
50 miles from Atlanta, was so
isolated that he had to rent a
room near the Capitol when
the Legislature was in session. He made the grueling
trip home over winding twolane roads only on weekends.
Today, Bremen is less than
an hour’s drive from the Capitol — on the Tom Murphy
Freeway.
“It has changed,” Murphy
said of his home district.
“There’s no question about
that. [Atlanta] is moving this
way very fast.”
For decades, Murphy
served as a bridge between
the old and new Georgias,
political analysts say, leading
lawmakers to support economic development projects
for Atlanta even while championing the causes of farmers, small business owners
and others struggling to prosper in the state’s small towns.
“Although he came from
rural Georgia and his inner
circle came from rural Georgia, he has not behaved like a
rural Georgian,” said Charles
Bullock, a political scientist
at the University of Georgia.
“He has been astute enough
to understand that if you fuel
Atlanta’s economy, the rest
of the state follows along.”
Rose in the ranks
When he took office in
1960, Murphy said Wednesday, he never aspired to such
authority. During his first
term, he said, he barely made
his presence known.
“I didn’t open my mouth
the first year,” he said. “The
second year, I asked two
questions. The third year, I
started participating
regularly.”
After four years, he got his
first chairmanship under
Gov. Carl Sanders — in
By last week, he said, he
began to realize he might not
have changed enough to win
another election. On Election
Night, as usual, his family
and friends gathered at his
law firm, huddling over early
returns in front of the Civil
War artwork that decorates
the paneled walls. Cheers
erupted early in the evening
over news that the speaker
was winning big in a key precinct. But Murphy avoided
the party, remaining in his
private office until every precinct reported.
Finally, a few minutes
after midnight, he called his
supporters into his office and
delivered the bad news.
“It is obvious we have
been defeated,” he said over
groans from the small crowd.
‘Let there be no tears’
Sitting behind his large
wooden desk, he recited
some of his accomplishments
— a new campus for a technical college in Haralson
County, a fiber-optic network
under construction in Bremen, a reservoir that’s in the
works — and thanked his
supporters.
His greatest hope, he said,
was that he had “never
brought dishonor to Haralson County.”
He noticed a few women
dabbing at their eyes. “Let
there be no tears,” Murphy
said. “Another day has gone
by.”
The next morning,
between telephone calls from
well-wishers, he talked of
finding more time to fish and
of weaning himself from the
politics that defined his life
for so many decades.
“I’m looking forward to
not having to worry about all
those issues and not having
people beat on me all the
time,” Murphy said. “I have
no intention of ever running
for anything else. I’ve had a
good run.”
operative, Navy officer
By J.E. GESHWILER
jgeshwiler@ajc.com
Tim O’Keefe had a myriad
of decorations for valor —
among them a Silver Star,
Navy Cross, Legion of Merit,
several Purple Hearts — but
he was very guarded about
how he earned them.
“Tim was involved in many
classified operations that he
was never given credit for,”
said retired Vice Adm. Joseph
Metcalf of Washington, his
former commanding officer.
“He operated in a spooky
world, in the field and here in
Washington.”
He led a double life in the
Navy, at times a uniformed
officer, sometimes an undercover operative. During his
career, he commanded two
warships, served as a military
Family photo
attaché to Australia and was
Navy Capt. Timothy O’Keefe is decorated by Vice Adm. Joan intelligence analyst and
seph Metcalf at his retirement at the Pentagon garden in
operative.
1986.
“Tim went on missions
behind enemy lines both in
Southeast Asia and in the
Monday of congestive heart
Metcalf to design a 21st cenMiddle East,” said his wife,
failure en route to a hospital.
tury Navy.
Martha O’Keefe of Alpharetta.
“Tim was the essential team Roswell Funeral Home is in
“He was wounded several
charge of arrangements.
leader of my working group,”
times and even left for dead on said Admiral Metcalf. “He had
Mr. O’Keefe moved to
a mountaintop in Laos.
Alpharetta 17 months ago and
a wonderful imagination, plus
Though he had a chest wound, the energy and intelligence to
got involved in several civic
he managed to climb down
groups, winning election as
make ideas work.”
the mountain and was
“Tim was a hero to his staff vice president of the Alphaextracted by dragline from a
retta Kiwanis Club.
and associates based on what
light plane that jerked him
Its president, Jamie Hulgran
we saw of his vision and leadinto the air, which gave him a
of Roswell, said, “He was willership,” said retired Navy
lifelong back injury,” she said. Capt. Tracy Connors of Tivering and able to take on any“We were told enemies of
ton, R.I. “Only much later did thing, community service
the U.S. had put a contract out we come to know something
included. You’d never know
on his life,” she continued.
from his sunny personality all
of what he had accomplished
“Security agencies — they all
the dangers he faced during
during combat operations far
seem to overlap — watched
his military service.”
removed from those usually
over us and our house. He left seen in a Navy surface warSurvivors include his
that life when he left Washing- rior.”
daughters, Susan Creeden of
ton.”
The funeral for retired Navy Marietta, Elise Humphrey of
Among his assignments in
Springfield, Va., and Leah
Capt. Timothy Robert
Washington: He directed a
O’Keefe, 68, of Alpharetta is 3 Anderson of New Braunfels,
high-priority and classified
p.m. today at St. David’s Epis- Texas; and seven grandchilprogram headed by Admiral
dren.
copal Church. He died
MABLETON
Leon Moss, 83, transit manager
By DERRICK HENRY
dhenry@ajc.com
BEN GRAY / Staff
House Speaker Tom Murphy dashes for the door April 12 after declaring the 2002 House
session was adjourned “sine die” — a Latin phrase meaning for an indefinite period.
Everything Leon Moss did,
he did with gusto. That
includes supervising hundreds
of Atlanta transit workers,
running the Cobb County
school bus system during a
period of explosive growth,
painting landscapes and singing in his church choir.
At Leland United Methodist Church, Mr. Moss sang
bass. “He didn’t have much of
a voice, but he sang really
loud, and he enjoyed it,” said
his daughter, Peggy A. Koon
of Douglasville. “He was very
enthusiastic.”
That same passion
informed his work over three
decades with the Atlanta
Transit System, where he
started as a streetcar driver
and rose to district superin-
C. Leon
Moss was
known for
putting
enthusiasm
into every
aspect of living.
tendent, and his next job as
director of transportation for
13 years with the Cobb
County Board of Education.
“Leon was a natural manager who everyone loved
because he was fair,” said his
golfing buddy Al Brasill of
Smyrna, who worked with Mr.
Moss at the transit system.
“He emphasized work safety
and had an excellent safety
record.”
C. Leon Moss, 83, of Mableton died Monday of liver cancer at Tranquility Hospice.
The funeral was Wednesday at
Davis-Struempf Funeral
Home.
The Mableton native had a
brief career as a minor league
pitcher before joining the
transit system. During World
War II, he served in the Navy
as a gunner’s mate aboard a
ship in the Pacific theater.
After retirement in 1982,
Mr. Moss busied himself
painting, woodworking, playing golf and e-mailing friends.
“Dad loved life, loved people, and was a lot of fun,” said
his daughter.
“He was always joking and
teasing. The best advice he
ever gave me was, ‘If people
don’t love you, they don’t
tease you.’ ”
Survivors include his wife,
Christine “Dot” Austin Moss,
two stepgrandchildren and a
stepgreat-grandson.
Morris Brown students put out feelers to other colleges
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“We have had an increase in
the number of Morris Brown
students who have called or
raised questions about transferring,” said Joel Harrell, vice
president for enrollment services and student affairs.
Morehouse College officials
said they had not noticed an
increase in inquiries from
Morris Brown students. Spelman College did not respond
to requests for information.
Neither Georgia State nor
Clark Atlanta gets many transfer students from Morris
Brown in a typical year. GSU
gets most of its transfers from
Georgia Perimeter College, a
two-year state school.
Students within the AU
Center, a cluster of private,
historically black schools,
rarely transfer from one school
to another because they are
allowed to take classes at each
other’s campuses. Students at
Morris Brown, for example,
can take classes at Morehouse,
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Clark Atlanta or Spelman
without paying extra money
or doing additional paperwork
— and Morris Brown’s tuition
is lower than that at the other
AU Center schools.
“It’s not a situation in
which [Morris Brown] is one
of the schools we look to as a
feeder school,” Harrell said.
Morris Brown College is
$23 million in debt, under
investigation for possible
fraudulent use of student aid
funding, and in danger of losing its accreditation when the
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools meets next
month. If Morris Brown loses
accreditation, its students
would be ineligible for financial aid, which would be a devastating blow. The federal
money provides more than 70
percent of the school’s revenue. And more than 90 percent of the 2,500 students at
Morris Brown depend on the
aid to pay some of their college expenses.
Morris Brown’s mission is
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to provide education to students even if they are underprepared for college. Many students could find it difficult to
find a place to transfer to if the
school closes. Most Georgia
schools, even state community
colleges, have higher criteria
for admissions than Morris
Brown, which requires little
more than a high school
diploma or GED.
It also would be difficult for
the nearby schools to accept as
many as 2,500 additional students, said M. Christopher
Brown, associate professor
and senior research associate
at the Center for the Study of
Higher Education at Penn
State University.
“It’s a challenge when you
talk about closing any institution,” said Brown, considered
an expert on historically black
colleges and universities. “It’s
a different situation if it’s a
school of 500 to 1,000
students.”
Senior Donnell Morgan is
one student who has begun
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“They’re . . . asking
questions, finding out
what the deadline is.
We’re getting a lot more
phone calls from Morris
Brown students.”
DIANE WEBER
Georgia State official
looking for an alternative to
Morris Brown for spring
semester. Morgan said he
feared Morris Brown would
lose accreditation and be
forced to close. So far, he has
talked to Clark Atlanta, where
he said he had taken most of
the classes for his communications major in the past year.
He also plans to explore a
transfer to Georgia State.
However, he said he had
been unable to get a copy of
his transcript from Morris
Brown because the school
said he owed $2,000, a debt
Morgan disputes. Without a
transcript, he cannot apply to
another school.
“It’s too bad it’s gone this
way,” said Morgan, 25, of Minneapolis. “My senior year has
just been a catastrophe.”
Morgan said he was working two jobs — at CNN Center
and at Georgia State’s Rialto
Theater — to pay off the
money Morris Brown said he
owed.
Morgan said he chose Morris Brown because he wanted
to go to a historically black
college in Atlanta and the
school offered a lower tuition
than Morehouse or Clark
Atlanta. He has paid for his
education with federal grants
and loans. He estimates his
loan debt at graduation will be
between $11,000 and $12,000.
“I made a wrong choice
when I came to Morris
Brown,” Morgan said. “I’m
suffering the repercussions of
it.”
The deadline for spring
admission to Clark Atlanta
was Nov. 1, so students who
missed that deadline will have
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to wait until fall to transfer.
Harrell could not say how
many Morris Brown students
had already applied.
But Clark Atlanta will not
be able to accommodate many
of the students, Harrell said.
Students who have taken
classes at Clark Atlanta would
be given no special consideration for admission, he said.
“They would be considered
like any other student applying to the university as a
transfer,” Harrell said. “We’re
not in a position to absorb
2,000 students; that just
wouldn’t be possible. Certainly we would want to work
with as many as we could.”
Georgia State University
could take a greater number of
transfers as long as students
meet the school’s criteria,
Weber said. Transfer students
must have accumulated at
least 30 hours of college-level
courses and must have a 2.3
grade-point average, she said.
The deadline for spring semester applications is Nov. 15.
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