Thomas D'Arcy Brophy, advertising executive and leader in public affairs was born October 18, 1893 in Butte, Montana. He was educated in the Butte schools and received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Gonzaga University, Spokane, Washington, in 1912; then earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1916. In 1953 he was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Gonzaga University.
Mr. Brophy entered the Army in 1917 as a second lieutenant and was an instructor of artillery at Fort Monroe, Virginia. He was made assistant to the chief of coast artillery and was discharged in 1919 with the rank of major. Following the war he was employed for a while as an architectual draftsman, but in 1920 he joined the Anaconda Copper and Mining Company as director of market research and sales promotion. By 1923 he was promoted to the vice-presidency of Anaconda and became director of the Copper and Brass Research Association. The same year Mr. Brophy married Jessie Stuart Milligan.
In 1929 Brophy moved over to Revere Copper and Brass Company as vice-president. At this time the company's advertising was being handled by two men, Otis Kenyon and Henry Eckhardt. They asked Brophy to join their organization, and in 1931 he became associated with the advertising firm of Kenyon and Eckhardt as vice-president.
Mr. Brophy was in a serious automobile accident in 1933 and was severely burned. This caused him to spend the next two and one half years in hospitals, going through some twenty-eight plastic surgery operations on his face, hands, and legs. (Several years later he had four aftermath operations.) He returned to active work at Kenyon and Eckhardt in 1935, and by 1937 was elected president. In 1949 he became chairman of the Board. Under Brophy, Kenyon and Eckhardt became one of the six largest advertising firms in the country, with offices in eight cities, Canada and Mexico. He retired from the firm in 1957.
Mr. Brophy's professional activities included positions as founder and director of the Advertising Council; chairman of the Board of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, 1948-1949; and chairman of the advisory committee of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, 1950-1952. He was chairman of the National Outdoor Advertising Bureau, 1955-1956, and a past chairman of the Education Committee of the Advertising Federation of America.
He belonged to the University Club of New York; the MIT Club of New York; the Pilgrims, and to the Century Association of New York. Thomas D'Arcy Brophy died in August of 1967 in an automobile accident. At the time of his death, his wife was living in New York, and his daughters were married. His son was killed during World War II, while serving in the Navy.
Public Service Activities
Few men have been involved in as many public service organizations as was D'Arcy Brophy. His devotion to others, through non-profit institutions and organizations, is well documented in his Papers.
At the outbreak of World War II, Brophy helped organize the United Service Organization (USO), serving as a director and chairman of the Public Relations Committee from 1941 to 1947, and then again from 1965 to 1966. He was a director and member of the Executive Committee of the National War Fund from 1943 to 1945.
In 1947 Brophy was instrumental in creating the American Heritage Foundation, an organization formed to develop greater awareness of and participation in citizenship. From 1947 to 1955, while he served as president of the Foundation, he was largely responsible for the Freedom Train, which carried and displayed historic documents around the country. He played a leading part in the National Non-Partisan Register and Vote Campaigns of 1950 and 1952 and the campaign of 1964; and the Crusade for Freedom programs of 1953 and 1954 which incorporated, at that time, Radio Free Europe. Mr. Brophy also served as chairman of the Board of the Foundation from 1966 to his death in 1967, which followed his second presidency from 1960 to 1965.
In addition to the American Heritage Foundation and the various Advertising organizations with which he was involved, Brophy gave a great deal of time and effort to the following organizations: he was a lifetime member of the Corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), was chairman of the Visiting Committee for the Department of City and Regional Planning, MIT, and served on other MIT committees; he was one of the founders of the Society for the Rehabilitation of the Facially Disfigured which maintains the Institute of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery at New York University (NYU) - University Medical Center, being chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Society at his death; he served on the President's Committee for the Employment of the Physically Handicapped; he was a trustee of Roosevelt Hospital in New York and a member of the trustees of the New York University Bellevue Medical Center; and he served as a director of the National Society for Crippled Children and Adults, the International Society of Rehabilitation of the Disabled, and the World Rehabilitation Fund.
In recognition of his devotion to public service, Brophy was the recipient of many awards and honors, among them the Syracuse University School of Journalism Distinguished Service Medal, 1951; the Advertising Federation of America's first Distinguished Service Award, 1959; the Gold Medal for Americanism given in 1948 by the American Legion, Wall Street Post; the Printers Ink Contemporary Award for Distinguished Service, 1952; and the Civil Service Award of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, 1950. As a result of his work with the National War Fund, he was made an honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1947.
