Assemblyman Kevin Mullin, D-South San Francisco, speaks at a ceremony naming a learning center after his father Gene Mullin, a former assemblymember, mayor and high school teacher who died last year.
South San Francisco’s Community Learning Center is now named for Gene Mullin, a longtime teacher, two-time South San Francisco mayor and California assemblymember who died last year.
City leaders, educators and friends gathered at the center for a renaming ceremony Friday.
Gene Mullin taught social studies at South San Francisco High School for 32 years, and was on the City Council during the planning of the Community Learning Center, which opened in 2001.
He helped guide the facilities programing toward family support, English as a second language classes, literacy programming and after-school homework programs for local children.
“This will be a steady reminder of the dedication my father had to his South San Francisco Community,” said Assembly Speaker pro Tem Kevin Mullin, Gene Mullin’s son.
Kevin Mullin said a public funeral and memorial service for his father had not been held due to the pandemic. “But today is a perfect and fitting tribute for a life and career celebration of my dad,” he said.
Gene Mullin served on the City Council from 1995 to 2002, when he was elected to the Assembly representing the 19th District. During his six years in the Legislature, he earned a reputation for remarkable consistency as the only member that never missed a committee vote, casting approximately 11,000 during his service.
Among his other life accomplishments, he served briefly in the U.S. Army, coached basketball, helped lead his district’s teachers’ union, and served on multiple South San Francisco commissions. In 1991, he received recognition as the San Mateo County Teacher of the Year.
“If you know the history of Gene Mullin, you can see the impacts all around you,” U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, said in a statement. “Now you will be able to see it here in the center in the eyes of school kids.”
Mayor Mark Nagales said he had been a student of Gene Mullin’s, where he was made to attend City Council meetings as homework. Later in life, Nagales said he would often ask for guidance concerning difficult City Council decisions.
“The reason I can stand in front of you today, as mayor of South San Francisco, is because of Gene,” said Nagales.
Joe Cotchett, a prominent Peninsula Lawyer, also shared memories from his friendship with Gene Mullin. The two served in the military together and later played in the same basketball league in San Bruno, he said.
“I fell in love with the guy,” said Cotchett. “He was the furthest thing from a politician, he was a public servant personified. He could care less about politics … Gene was only concerned with how legislation would help local communities. The guy was something else.”
The South San Francisco Unified School District’s Board of Trustees approved the renaming of the learning center last year, shortly after Gene Mullin’s death. The center is located at 520 Tamarack Lane.
(650) 344-5200, ext. 105
(650) 344-5200, ext. 105
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CA Is Burning said:
I say leave things alone and let things play out. Redistricting is only used to provide an advantage to a political party.
CA Is Burning said:
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