Terence O'Toole Murnin

Terence Joseph O’Toole Murnin is a Pisces boy, born in the Year of the Tiger, in Centerville, Utah. One of his earliest cinematic memories was being dropped off by his mom, Beverly Jean, at the Queen Theatre on a Saturday afternoon and watching Jeremiah Johnson, starring Robert Redford. At one particularly quiet moment in the film, a rifle suddenly BANGS OUT LOUD and the tub of popcorn precariously balancing on Terence’s knee went flying. Terence has been addicted to the cinema ever since that moment.

Terence’s dad, Eamon DeValera, was from Park City, and on the Fourth of July, Terence and his many Irish cousins would watch a movie at The Egyptian Theatre on Main Street in Park City, which is now symbolic of the Sundance Film Festival.

And while films have always allowed Terence’s mind to escape reality, it was his body, built like an NBA-baller, that allowed him to escape the conservative confines of Utah and soar to Cambridge, Massachusetts where he studied at Harvard and played basketball for The Crimson in the Ivy-League. When not in a gym, Terence could be found at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts where he created photographic images and films, graduating Cum Laude in Visual and Environmental Studies (VES), completing his thesis with professor Jane Tuckerman.

Davis Pratt, the associate curator of photographs at the Fogg Art Museum of Harvard University, gave Terence his first show in the museum’s print room. Working as the visual artist and fashion photographer, Terence O’Toole, Terence was ensconced on the top floor of a three-story walk-up studio on Union Park Street in Boston’s South End for many years where he photographed some of the top models of the day, sang in the band, All She Wrote, and traveled extensively. Terence became a regular contributor to Stuff Magazine, and his fashion photography appeared in numerous publications, most notably, Select and Italian Zoom.

Terence’s fine-art photography was honored with a National Endowment for the Arts grant presented by Jane Alexander, then chairman of the NEA. He was also honored with a Canon Cameras/Santa Fe Photographic Workshops scholarship and spent a week in Santa Fe, New Mexico, photographing nudes in the hallowed landscape with legendary Hollywood fashion photographer, Greg Gorman.

Returning to his roots in the west, Terence was drawn to the extremes of the desert in the valley of the sun where he wore many hats for numerous ad agencies working as a writer, creative director, producer and public relations director.

An addict of pop culture, Terence is currently working on the great American screenplay when not serving as a Communications Specialist for the law firm of Fennemore Craig. He is also a frequent contributor to Harvardwood.

Terence lives a charmed life in the Biltmore area of Phoenix, Arizona, still deeply committed to the VES ideal: Light & Communication. Word + Image. His daughter, Tara Warrior Princess, is his pride and joy.

In Vino Veritas.

In Mary Jane Bellezza.