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The story of Mother Murphy’s evolution from an experimental venture in the back room of a drug store to a global company that has become a leader in its category is the story of how a doctor and an insurance salesman turned the American dream into a reality.
Our story begins with Dr. Richard Stelling, a Greensboro physician who, as part of his practice, examined customers for insurance giant Jefferson Standard Life. One of the agents, Kermit L. Murphy Sr., saw Dr. Stelling regularly and was fascinated when he learned that the physician had worked his way through the University of Georgia making and selling food flavorings. Murphy’s interest grew as the doctor told him how, after he’d set up practice in Greensboro during the 1920s, he’d continued experimenting with flavors in the basement laboratory of his home, just as many Dot Com entrepreneurs would set up shop in their garages in a future generation.
The two of them first became fast friends and then business partners, with Murphy selling the flavorings to local bakeries. In 1945, they decided to rent a room in the back of a drug store in the then-outlying Pomona area of Greensboro. With a small mixer and big dreams, the two of them spent their nights and weekends concocting new formulas and perfecting existing formulations. By August of 1947, Murphy convinced 14 investors to help him set up Southern Laboratories. Dr. Stalling left the company at that point and Murphy soon recruited a veteran chemist from a competitor in New York.
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