When Thomas Aquinas Murphy graduated from high school in Cicero, Ill., his family was so strapped that he spent most of three frigid years working in ice-making plants before going on to the University of Illinois. Last week, after 36 years at General Motors (all but four in finance), Murphy, 58, took the final step in from the cold; the serious, spectacled accountant was named chairman and chief executive of General Motors, the most prestigious corporate post in the world. "Murph" will take office Dec. 1, a week after his predecessor, Richard...
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