Obituary of Michael Mullin

IN MEMORY OF MICHAEL MULLIN MICHAEL MULLIN, known as Gerry to his earliest friends, was born August 16, 1938 in Los Angeles County, CA. On May 27, 2020, he died at age 81 at home in Green Valley, AZ, of cancer.

 Michael grew up as a beach kid in Manhattan Beach, CA. He learned to swim early and swam in the ocean throughout his life even during the winter months. His family also lived briefly in the San Francisco Bay area and in the Chicago suburbs. He graduated in 1956 from Arcadia High School, Arcadia, CA., where he was a member of the track team. Michael loved to run and he continued this activity into his early 70’s.

Michael’s father wanted him to get a job right out of high school, but Michael wanted to continue his education. Thanks to the encouragement of a neighbor, he applied and was accepted to UC Santa Barbara. In 1960 he received his B.A. in History and went on to get his M.A. at UCSB in the History of the High Middle Ages. He then was accepted for the Phd program at Berkeley where he was awarded a doctorate degree in American Colonial History with his Dissertation on Slave Resistance.

His teaching career, spanning 39 years, included the City College of San Francisco, Smith College, University of Hull in East Yorkshire, England, Nottingham College in the UK and then SAC State from 1971 until 1995. Most of his teaching revolved around Colonial America. With the encouragement of one of his professors at Berkeley, he took his dissertation material and wrote his first book: “Flight and Rebellion: Slave Resistance in 18th C Virginia, published by Oxford University Press. (The book was nominated for a Pulitzer in 1972).

In 1975 Harper & Row published his “Documentary History of American Negro Slavery.” In 1992 the University of Illinois Press published “Africa in America: Slave Acculturation and Resistance in the American South and the British Caribbean 1736-1831.”

Just before he passed, Michael completed a draft of a new book, “Voices of the Underdog and other Stories of People of Color Fighting Back Against Racism” using the power of art and dance.

Michael was a life-long learner. Curious about everything, he read voraciously, not only books in his field of academic study but on a wide range of topics. As an intrepid explorer, you could find him constantly traveling to Asia, the Americas, Europe and Australia. He haunted museums, taking copious notes of each painting or sculpture. Later in life he also developed an interest in Buddhist meditation and taught yoga to seniors for the last five years.

He was born a lover of the sea and of the desert. His love of the desert began as a boy with childhood asthma who was sent off to the California high desert for holidays to clear his lungs. He would hike for hours even in the heat, exploring the terrain, reveling in its stark beauty and silence. This love of the desert led him, after retirement, to volunteer at such National Parks as Bandelier in New Mexico and Arches in Utah. Chaco Canyon, also in New Mexico, was his favorite. He volunteered as a campground host there for 17 years and that’s where he met his domestic partner, Naneki Elliott, in 2005. They continued to volunteer at Arches and at Chaco together for several years.

Michael began his academic career in Santa Barbara and that’s where he and Naneki ended up residing for 11 years until one year ago when they moved to Green Valley. In the 15 years they were blessed to have together, they ventured out on 21 major trips ranging from the northwest to the southwest to the northeast of the U.S. and across Canada, Europe and Australia by RV, car, trains, planes and buses.

Michael has been blessed with five children: Mike Mullin of Bend, OR; Jeannine Mullin of Woodland, CA; Sarah Mullin of Chico, CA; Matt Mullin of Davis, CA and Megan Damon of Lakewood, WA. He has ten grand-children.

Many thanks to Arista Hospice for helping Michael during his final passage. Donations in honor of Michael can by made to his choice of Doctors Without Borders. Since his wish was to have his ashes scattered off the California coast in Santa Cruz, there will be a seaside ceremony there when the time is right.

I want to thank all of his friends and family for loving Michael for the true Renaissance man that he was. As one dear friend said, “I want you to leave me your hair and your brains.” He has left us with the memory of those things and more: his generosity of spirit, his amazing aesthetic sense, his humor, his wisdom, his love for his family and friends, his love of the natural world, his embracing life to the fullest and, at the end, ever the teacher, his showing us how to embrace death with dignity and grace.

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