Illinois Gov. James Thompson earlier this month reappointed two long-time Board of Regents members and named one new member, David T. Murphy of Cary, Illinois.

The Regents govern NIU, Illinois State University in Normal and Sangamon State University in Springfield.

Carol Burns and D. Brewster Parker, the reappointees, have been on the board since 1977 and 1978 respectively.

Murphy, 60, comes to the board with financial savvy and a strong community college administrative background.

Born in Janesville, Wis., he attended Lake Forest (Ill.) Academy, a private prep school, where he played football and captained the track team.

Murphy graduated with a B.A. in international relations from Brown University in Rhode Island, an Ivy League school, and joined Continental Bank’s executive training program in 1951. Murphy said he has been in the investment banking business “for most of my life.”

He spent eight years in corporate planning with the Kemper Financial Group and has been with his current employer, Resource Development International, Ltd. in Rolling Meadows, a financial planning group, for more than three years. Murphy, who describes himself as “fiscally conservative,” is senior vice-president specializing in investment security sales at RDI.

In 1976, Murphy answered an ad for McHenry County College Board trustee positions in a Crystal Lake newspaper. He said he got involved because he had always been active in prep school and college and it was “part of my nature.”

He has since served on that board for 13 years as a trustee and will soon step down as the board’s chairman due to his impending Regent responsibilities. He is a past president of the Illinois Community College Trustees Association as well.

Murphy said it should take “anywhere up to three to six months to a year” to become familiar with Regents’ policies.

“It’s a new environment. I will tread slowly and cautiously,” he said. “I’m flexible and reasonable and I can change my position if proven wrong. A lot of people can’t do that.”

In his spare time, Murphy has collected coins and wildlife art and has just begun collecting Native American arrowheads. He plays golf and does some gardening as well. He and his wife, Connie, have three children.