After 24 years with Northeastern, university Treasurer Joseph Murphy will be passing on his duties at the end of the month. Endowment management and other financial issues he controls will now fall into the hands of various members of the financial affairs office.

“I had enough years and I’m old enough so that I can take early retirement, so I’m going to take early retirement,” Murphy said.

He also said, however, that after a period of rest, he will be looking for “some other new challenge,” because, at 56, he is “too young to retire completely.”

Murphy will work through the end of October and will be available for consulting until the end of the semester. He said that whoever takes over his position will not take on all of his responsibilities.

“I always said if I left, they would have to hire more than one person to replace me,” Murphy said. “I don’t know of anyone else, even in another school, that handles all the diverse things that I handle, so I don’t think they could get one person to do it all.”

Murphy currently handles all of the investments, bond issues, debt issuances, insurance money, as well as controlling the endowment.

Murphy started in the business office at Northeastern 24 years ago and has worked as treasurer since 1996. He said that since he began managing the endowment it has grown from less than $100 million to over $400 million.

Senior Vice President for Administration and Finance Larry Mucciolo said his search to find a replacement for Murphy is currently in its earliest stages.

“It is a significant loss and it’ll be hard to get an able replacement, but that’s what we’re going to have to endeavor to do,” Mucciolo said.

In the interim, though, Murphy’s duties will be divided among members of the office, and he will have to name an individual as treasurer because of “legal responsibilit[ies],” he said.