Perseverance in Profile
JUDGE ALBERT S. “PAT” MURDOCH: HE DIDN’T QUIT BY TOM CALARCO
As a child struggling to overcome the ravages of polio, New Mexico District Court Judge “Pat” Murdoch saw the best and worst of people, something he sees now every day on the judicial bench. “I have lots of little stories about
kindnesses extended to me, and stories about people who were cruel and insensitive,” he says.
10 S DIVERSITY & THE BAR® MARCH/APRIL 2011 “I was the only disabled person in school during those
days,” he says. As a result, he had severe problems with self-image and
in seventh grade he began having panic attacks and had to drop out of school. T en he had a life-changing experience. “My physical therapist took me to see another young boy
who was disabled with polio,” he says. “He was in a fetal posi- tion, curled up, and pasty white. My therapist said ‘the only diff erence between you and him is that he quit.’ And I started to see what my future was like if I didn’t fi ght the fi ght.” Murdoch returned to school and never looked back. He
took up the trumpet, became editor of the school newspa- per, and student body president. In 1970, Murdoch faced another challenge, a spinal fusion
Struck by polio in 1952 when he was eight months old, Murdoch nearly died and spent most of the next three years at Carrie Tingley Children’s Hospital in Albuquerque, enduring one surgery after another. But unlike most disabled kids then, he was sent to school. It was diffi cult, he says, because people were afraid their kids would get polio from him. T ey didn’t understand that it is a virus that comes and goes, and he was often ostracized.
operation that would allow him to walk with a crutch. He was in a body cast for six months, but when it was removed his heart wasn’t strong enough to allow him to stand. To recondition his heart, he was put on a tilt board that gradu- ally lifted him to an upright position for temporary periods. T is was done until he would pass out, and continued for longer periods until he was able to stand upright. Overcoming that hurdle, when he was about to enter
college he faced another misfortune. His mother died of a brain tumor a week before he started. His resolve forti- fi ed from his experiences—he says that seeing To Kill a Mockingbird and identifying with the character of Atticus Finch made him want to go into law—he persevered and earned his undergraduate and law degrees. When it was time to look for a job, someone recommended that he become a corporate lawyer. Being only fi ve feet tall
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