(More on Jerry inducted into the MPGA Hall of Fame)

Jerry Murphy is realizing that old habits are tough to break.

Despite suffering from liver cancer, the 77-year-old still puts in a few hours a week at the Mendota Heights Police Department, where he has been a volunteer reserve officer since 1967.

"I can't do a lot anymore ... maybe just look over the reports," he said last week. "But it's nice to see everyone and catch up on things."

Murphy, who is the last remaining member of the city's original police reserve program, also is keeping up with his Thursday morning tradition of bringing in a dozen doughnuts.

"It becomes like a family, so you're a part of the family," he said. "And it's hard to let go of that."

The July cancer diagnosis -- doctors gave him three to six months to live -- has forced Murphy to take a medical leave, leaving another void in the department after the death of officer Scott Patrick, the 47-year-old veteran cop who was shot and killed during a traffic stop July 30.

"On top of everything else that went on last year, it's been really, really tough," Police Chief Mike Aschenbrener said of Murphy's illness.

Murphy has been the "calm, steady presence" within the police department, which is made up of 18 sworn officers and three civilian employees, and the one many turn to for advice, Aschenbrener said.

"He is the guy that when he has something to say, you listen to him," he said. "He just has that presence about him that he's been there, done that."

Murphy is the "most compassionate human being you could ever meet," Aschenbrener added. "He would give you a shirt off his back."

That Murphy still finds time for the department is no surprise to his co-workers, especially when considering how he has put in nearly 14,000 volunteer hours over nearly half a century, Sgt. Brian Convery said.

"You look at Jerry and he's the guy who you think is never going to retire," he said. "He's like the Energizer bunny. That's partly why it really was sad and a bit of a reality hit for us, because we didn't think he ever was going to slow down."

Murphy said it was a Mendota Heights house fire in 1967 that got him into public service. While working at Somerset Country Club, he saw the blaze across the street, grabbed all the extinguishers he could find and proceeded to douse the flames before firefighters even arrived.

At the scene, an impressed police sergeant told Murphy that the city was starting a reserve program to support police officers. Murphy agreed to join. Nowadays, reserve officers primarily provide community event support, help with traffic control, give jail and detox transportation and patrol the city's parks and trails.

When a former police chief cut the program from the city budget in the 1980s, Murphy stayed on part time as a licensed officer. He also worked at the golf course.

Living and working in Mendota Heights, he said, allowed him to be "Johnny on the spot" for burglaries, accidents and other incidents. But getting to know residents is what he cherishes most.

"The most fun I got out of it was traveling the back streets, the side streets and talking with the kids and the people that were out in their yards and doing things," he said. "I got to know a lot of the residents that way, and I really had fun with them."

Aschenbrener, who joined the department as chief in 2003, said his first impression of Murphy was someone who arrived on the scene well-prepared, no matter the time.

"It was kind of strange when I got here because he always had his uniform with him in the car. He always had his portable (radio) with him. He always had his cellphone with," he said.

"And when something happened, they'd just call him up, and he'd show up in a couple of minutes, and he'd block traffic. He'd circulate traffic. He'd help hold a perimeter, and he'd check people in and out of crime scenes. It was like, 'Wow, this is unbelievable.' "

When Aschenbrener revived the reserve program in 2009, he appointed Murphy as the unit captain and assigned him the job of recruiting officers. Last year, Murphy and the other three other reserve officers -- Jim Knox, Jeff Parker and Randy Pentel -- racked up more than 2,000 volunteer hours.

Murphy is the "definition of what community policing is all about," Convery said.

"He knows everybody in the city and has their respect," he said. "And I'm talking about from the police staff to the residents."

Murphy said he decided against treating his cancer with chemotherapy "after having watched some very close friends do that and seeing their quality of life go down to zero."

He was scheduled to try experimental treatment at Mayo Clinic Cancer Center in Scottsdale, Ariz., in March, but the program was put on hold before he could do so.

The department has his back, Pentel said.

"None of us want to be defeatists and we don't want to start planning for the worst," he said. "And at the same time we're going to continue to rally to Jerry and do what we can to support him in any decision he makes and whatever he goes through."

Murphy and his wife, Marylin, moved to Inver Grove Heights in 2003, the same year he retired from Somerset Country Club as general manager. In 2012, he was inducted into the Minnesota Golf Hall of Fame for his work at the course and with the Minnesota Golf Course Superintendents Association.

Nick Ferraro can be reached at 651-228-2173. Follow him at twitter.com/NFerraroPiPress.