The 2019 Annie Moore Award will be presented to John J. Murphy.   

Mr. Murphy is a partner with the Private Advisor Group, a financial planning and investment firm headquartered in Morristown, NJ. He also serves as a commissioner on the NJ Board of Elections. John served five three year terms on the Morris County Board of Freeholders and two terms as Freehold Director. He was the board’s liaison to the Dept. of Administration and Finance, Dept. of Economic Development, Dept. of Law and public Safety and Dept. of Human Services. He served five years on the Morris Township governing body and was Mayor of Morris Township in 1996 and 97. He ran for the Republican nomination for governor of NJ in 2005.

John served as the 2018 Grand Marshal of the Morris County St. Patricks Day parade. He was honored in 2015 by the Boy Scouts of America with the Morris Lifetime Achievement Award and has been the recipient of numerous leadership awards including the Alex DeCroce Leadership Award in 2012; the 2011 Economic Development Leadership Award by Morris County Economic Development Corporation and the Morris County Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Morris Award in 2006. John also serves as an active member of the Morris Township Volunteer Fire Department

Henry McNally is semi-retired, following a career of 40+ years in education: 35 years at the secondary level in New Jersey, retiring as a High School Principal; 5 at the collegiate level teaching Education and Irish History at Marist College in New York. Before relocating to the Jersey Shore area, he taught Irish History in the Bergen County Community College Adult Learning Program, introducing literally thousands to the joys of his Irish heritage. Presently, Mr. McNally is teaching in the Irish Studies Program at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft, New Jersey and at the Osher Life-Long Learning Institute of Rutgers University; he is also a much sought-after lecturer among Irish organizations in the shore area.

Mr. McNally holds Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees from Fordham University and a Master’s Degree from William Paterson University as well as a Certificate in Irish Studies from University College, Galway.

He is a first generation Irish-American, both parents born in County Armagh. He has travelled often to Ireland, visited each of the 32 Counties, and spent a sabbatical year living in Tipperary, while working part time in a training program for delinquent youth in Cork City. During that year, he was instrumental in the introduction of Ireland’s first drug and alcohol treatment program focusing on teenagers. Mr. McNally is also a 1993 recipient of a Geraldine Dodge Foundation grant for study of “Conflict Resolution” in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Across the last 25 years, Mr. McNally has conducted more than 15 educational and cultural tours of Ireland. In March of 2016, he led a group of 75 on a Centennial Tour, commemorating the Easter Rising and leading a “Diaspora March” on Easter Saturday from Dublin’s Liberty Hall to St. Stephen’s Green. He and 45 others are recently returned from Ag Cuimhniú Ar Na Mná, a “Remembering the Women” Tour, addressing the under-recognized role of women in Irish History and Culture.

Henry McNally resides in Manasquan, New Jersey with his wife of 48 years, the former Kathleen Mangan, second generation Irish American by virtue of all four grandparents. He is the father of Kathleen and Eileen, who remember fondly their year in a Tipperary Convent School and the grandfather of four. In a personal effort to enjoy the culture and carry on the tradition, the larger family spent much of a recent August in County Kerry on the Dingle Peninsula.