STUART MURPHY

risd connection: BFA in Illustration, 1964; RISD trustee; visiting critic

medium: trade and textbooks

talent: A nationally recognized leader in educational reform, Murphy has most recently been developing MathStart, a series of 36 elementary-level trade books for HarperCollins Children’s Books designed to snuff out the prevailing “Gee, I’ve never been good at numbers” phobia early on.

getting there: When he joined Ginn and Co., once a prominent Boston textbook publisher, Murphy found attention to visual information to be noticeably absent. To rectify the situation, during his 11 years at Ginn he became increasingly involved in the field of visual learning – how children learn from visual stimuli. In the 1980s, he launched Ligature, Inc., a company with offices in Boston, Chicago and St. Louis. Ligature created a precedent-setting K-8 social studies program that officially merged visual and verbal teaching methods, and served as a model for the textbook of the future.

breaking in: In 1992, after being selected as the first visual learning specialist to join a team of textbook authors, Murphy left Ligature to pursue his ultimate dream – developing visual learning books for younger children. Soon, he began to specialize in early level math books because he feels math has always gotten a bad rap; “you always hear people say ‘Will you figure out the tip? I’m terrible at math,’ but you never hear anyone say, ‘I’m terrible at reading.’ Most people just assume they’re not good at math.”

making it: Through his MathStart series, Murphy is determined to make math “part of a kid’s daily conversation, not a series of problem sets.” Each of the 24 MathStart books published so far features “the kind of things kids care about – shopping, carnivals, pizza, collecting rocks.” He works on up to six books a year from his home studio. Recognized children’s book illustrators are then selected to produce the art for each book.

average day: … presenting his point of view about learning at a national education conference… hopping a plane home to Evanston, IL… greeting Blitzen, the family’s octogenarian cocker spaniel… reviewing illustrator’s proofs for the newest MathStart book… confirming next week’s travel schedule with his wife, Nancy… planning a visit to a local elementary school…

discoveries: “I’ve often found myself stopping in mid-project and saying ‘Okay, what are you trying to do here?’,” a trait he traces back to his crit-heavy RISD days when he discovered the “strength of purpose” and “incredible focus” required to take on three dozen MathStart books.