Personal Stories

The Mullin Family Turns Pain into Action: The James A. Mullin Golf Classic

Losing a loved one to cancer is a difficult experience for family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues. Turning grief into a vehicle for making a difference is what the Mullin family decided to do when they lost their beloved Jim, Marilyn’s husband and Steve’s father. Together with family members, they decided to hold the first annual James A. Mullin Golf Classic in Iowa in fall 2007 and the second in fall 2008. To date they have raised close to $13,000 for cancer early detection.

Steve Mullin shares the story behind the James A. Mullin Golf Classic

I recalled reading about early detection in the Wall Street Journal; then I did some brief research and found the article about Don Listwin. I also read some educational articles written by Andy Grove of Intel on early detection and prostate cancer. The low overhead and targeted approach of the Canary Foundation was very important to us. We did not want to be wasting donor funds with charities that have become too complex to manage. My father had pancreatic cancer, which is deadly because it is normally detected far too late for effective treatment. These things played into our decision, but we felt detecting any type of cancer early is a very intelligent way to tackle the disease.

My father was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer. He received a three-month death sentence, but fought it out for a year. Considering the circumstances, he made the best of that year. His body gave up in the last month. He wanted to prevent others from having to endure the suffering associated with the disease. He only had time for clinical trials and surveys. The golf outing is an extension of his desire to help. He golfed for the last time around his 69th birthday and, while playing in pain, he was more concerned about getting the ball over the water. Most of his friends also enjoy the game. The tournament gives us the opportunity to reunite with them on an annual basis.

It is through these friendships that we originally networked to hold the tournament in his name. My father was a retired mortgage banker and had hundreds of relationships in the Iowa mortgage and real estate community. Many of those business relationships turned into friendships that remained with my mother. We had a condolence book with 300 names, so between their friends, the condolence book, and my friends we were able to reach a fairly large number of people to ask if they would participate. We sent a mass email and used postcards for those without email. Some old-fashioned phone calls were made as well. We had a great response and held the first one in September 2007 and then the second one in fall 2008.

Jim Mullin with his grandkids

We wanted the tournament to be in the spirit of my dad. So the outing isn’t very serious. He was serious when it came to somebody locking in a mortgage rate, but beyond that he was pretty laid back. I passed out some exploding golf balls to make the round a little more interesting. It does get a little competitive between various foursomes, especially for the placing in the top three foursomes. We usually give out a gag prize to someone we want to embarrass in front of their friends.

My father did a lot of business on the golf course and enjoyed playing in retirement. He and my mom would attend the Senior PGA events held in Des Moines and make a trip to watch the younger players if they were visiting me in Chicago. It seemed like the natural thing to do to create the James A. Mullin Golf Classic to honor him and to raise funds for cancer early detection.

A good friend remembers Jim

Larry Sheldon, a good family friend, shares a few words about Jim Mullin and his reasons for supporting the golf classic:

Jim and I met in 1957 while students at Northwest Missouri State College in Maryville, Missouri. We became fraternity brothers and Jim and I shared a basement apartment with four other young men while at college. There are certainly a number of stories that originated from that group of six young men living together, but space does not permit talking about them here. Suffice it to say that Jim liked people and people liked Jim. After college, we met up again when my wife and I moved to Des Moines, where Jim and Marilyn also lived. As couples, we became even closer as we raised our families there. My career took our family out of Des Moines for a number of years; however, when we ultimately moved back to Des Moines in 1989, our friendship with the Mullin family picked up right where it had left off. We have many happy memories of times spent with Jim, Marilyn, and their family.

When Jim learned he had cancer, we were all, naturally, very concerned. We watched Jim and his family deal with this ultimate challenge over a period of several months. I have never seen a family pull together and provide support to a loved one so much as did the Mullin family during this period of time. Subsequent to Jim’s passing, Steve and Marilyn raised the idea of an annual golf outing in Jim’s honor and to help raise funds for the Canary Foundation. My wife, Judy, and I wholeheartedly supported this idea and are glad to be able to help his family keep Jim’s memory alive and at the same time to be able to support the very worthy efforts of the Canary Foundation.

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