Three generations of the Murdock family comprise their eponymous electric company.
When Brennon Murdock was in high school, he never really saw himself as a college student. When he graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the Daniels College of Business, he certainly didn’t expect to immediately return to his family’s company on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
“It’s different from what I thought it would be, but in a good way,” said Murdock, a member of the Oglala, Lakota, Yurok and Chippewa tribes, who earned a management degree in 2019. “I always thought I would gain more experience first before I came back. Now, I have a ton of experience and am looking to get education to help get Murdock Electric to the next level.”
Murdock came to the University of Denver on a Native American student scholarship from Red Cloud Indian School. (Red Cloud was a historic institution founded by Jesuits to assimilate Native children. In recent years, however, schools like Red Cloud have become dedicated to preserving tribal cultural values.)
Denver certainly induced culture shock: The slang, accents and faces he encountered were unfamiliar. At the time, fewer than 1% of DU’s student population identified as Native American. Amid classroom microaggressions and a sensitive political climate, Murdock found strength and support through the on-campus Native Student Alliance. Its annual New Beginnings Pow Wow was just one example of a community event that felt like home.
At Daniels, Murdock acquired the skills he needed to build a fulfilling career. On campus, he learned to research and investigate, instead of just accept apparent answers. In real estate classes, he became familiar with LEED certifications and how they function. And he traveled abroad to Japan, he studied the way business was conducted in another culture (while meeting his future wife).
Specifically, Murdock said, his time on campus gave him a new perspective on how to use business for the greater good—an ideal that is central to the Daniels mission and in lockstep with his cultural heritage.
Brennon Murdock with his child and his wife, whom he met studying abroad in Japan.
“I grew up on the Lakota reservation, learning a lot of Native American values like how sustainable we were with our past,” Murdock said. “I believe that community can bring those sustainable practices with them to the future, so long as greed doesn’t get in the way.”
Murdock hasn’t lost sight of that credo since formally joining the payroll at the company his grandfather started more than 40 years ago, with just an unreliable truck and a rusty trailer.
His tenure has been marked by a number of projects aimed at the greater good. During his time as project and operations manager, Murdock has pursued bids to charge government vehicles at Badlands National Park; taken on an initiative to improve a hospital’s atrium lighting; and helped power facilities at area schools.
Perhaps most meaningfully, Murdock has worked to enhance a heritage center at his alma mater, Red Cloud Indian School.
“It’s just good to have that example and show Native American kids that you can get off the res and then you can come back and help too,” Murdock said. “A lot of kids go out, get college [degrees] and then move on from there, never coming back and helping the community.”
Murdock’s eyes are now firmly set on a graduate degree. More than anything, he wants to acquire more tools for helping small businesses expand, especially in the area of green energy. In the longer term, he hopes to get more Native Americans into electrical and contracting work, sustaining his hometown reservation for years to come.