memorial lecture - rutgers university

MEMORIAL LECTURE

2013 AMCA MEMORIAL LECTURE HONOREE:THOMAS DESMOND MULHERN 1908–19931

TOMMY MULHERN AND THE LOST CRUSADE

RANDY GAUGLER

Center for Vector Biology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8536

Let’s start with a little quiz. Name this country:richest in the world, largest military power,world-class standard of living, world center ofinfluence and innovation. And the answer, ofcourse, is England … in 1912. This is a classicexample of a paradigm shift, that is, a funda-mental change from one way of thinking toanother, a change in viewpoint. But I see that afew of you may have missed it. Fortunately, thereis a bonus question, so you still have a shot atwinning an invaluable No-Prize.

Name this state: best funded for mosquitoresearch and control, largest mosquito controlworkforce, world-class mosquito research, worldcenter for mosquito control influence and inno-vation. And the answer, of course, is New Jersey… in 1949. And today you ask? Florida maybe,or California, but not New Jersey. What hap-pened?! This morning, I will show that TommyMulhern was the fulcrum for an abrupt paradigmshift in 1949 in what Gordon Patterson hastermed The Mosquito Crusades (Rutgers Univer-sity Press, 2009). It is a story filled with lessonsabout innovation, leadership, commitment, val-ues, service, and even passion—one man’s pas-sion for this association.

To understand this paradigm shift we mustreturn to the ‘‘Golden Age of Mosquito Control.’’

American universities have long been the nervecenter for the intellectual and technologicaladvances that made this country great. Duringthe 1st half of the last century, the center formosquito control innovation was Rutgers Uni-versity. Guided by 5 men—Smith, Headlee,Ginsberg, Granett, and Mulhern—Rutgers andNew Jersey led the world from the dawn ofmosquito control more than a century ago, untilthe end of the Golden Age in 1949 (Fig. 1).

The Golden Age started in 1896 when RutgersProfessor John B. Smith turned his attention tomosquitoes. It is Smith who kicked open the doorfor mosquito control in the USA. Smith resembled

Galileo and his telescope: wherever he lookedhe made a discovery. He conducted pioneeringstudies on mosquito larvicides and natural repel-lents, made the 1st powered spray applicationin 1907, and was a leading figure in mosquitoidentification and taxonomy. Extensive studies onmosquito-eating fish made him an early advocatefor biological control. His massive abatementprogram against salt marsh mosquitoes resultedin 5 million feet of hand-dug ditches by 1912. Andhe conducted outreach programs to encourage thepublic to eliminate backyard mosquito habitats.

Smith’s background as a lawyer equipped himfor his most important role: mosquito controlcrusader and advocate. The New Jersey mosquitolaws were a direct consequence of Smith’s basicresearch on mosquito dispersal. Smith’s seminalpaper on the mosquitoes of New Jersey (1904Report of the New Jersey Agricultural Experi-ment Station) established with an evidence-basedapproach to New Jersey policy makers that

1 This Memorial Lecture was presented at the 79thAnnual Meeting of the American Mosquito ControlAssociation in Atlantic City, NJ, February 24–28, 2013.

Professor Randy Gaugler

Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association, 29(2):181–190, 2013Copyright E 2013 by The American Mosquito Control Association, Inc.

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mosquitoes were a state as well as a localproblem. Because of Smith, New Jersey becamethe model for all who aspired to build mosquitocontrol programs.

We can only imagine what this man might haveaccomplished had he been granted a greaterlifespan, rather than dying in 1912 at age 53when he was at the peak of his powers, just 9 daysbefore New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilsonsigned the landmark mosquito laws that Smithhad authored. Smith is richly deserving of the title‘‘Father of the American Mosquito ControlMovement.’’

‘‘Between the idea…/And the act/Falls theshadow.’’ Here T. S. Eliot notes that a void oftenarises between vision and creation. New ideas areonly part of innovation. Someone capable ofexecuting that vision is also required. WithoutThomas J. Headlee, Smith might have been a merefootnote in the chronicles of the mosquito crusades.

Headlee was appointed Head of the RutgersDepartment of Entomology and leader of themosquito program within months of Smith’spassing. He led the department and the programfor the next 3 decades. Headlee transformed NewJersey into the cradle of the mosquito crusade.Gifted with superb leadership abilities and using

Smith’s template, Headlee immediately imple-mented the concept of local mosquito controlunits. The following year, 1913, he established theNew Jersey Mosquito Extermination Associa-tion, the evolutionary antecedent for the Amer-ican Mosquito Control Association (AMCA).These twin concepts, local mosquito control unitsand state associations, become widely emulatednationally and internationally and are NewJersey’s most enduring legacy.

Headlee was a man with an eye for talent, andhe used it to build the world’s foremost mosquitoresearch program. Among the stars hired byHeadlee, Joseph M. Ginsburg stands out. Pro-fessor Ginsburg devised the 1st modern mosquitolarvicide in the late 1920s, the ‘‘New JerseyLarvicide’’ (1930 Proc NJ Mosq Exterm Assoc,pp. 57–73), a pyrethrum-based compound thatquickly replaced the existing standards: keroseneand arsenic! Next he developed the 1st adulticide,‘‘Flit,’’ which became famous worldwide. Stan-dard Oil and others made a fortune from Flit.Rutgers and Ginsburg? Not so much. Ginsburg iscredited with the 1st spray from an aircraft formosquito control in 1930 and the 1st spacetreatment at Newark Stadium in 1935, and he

Fig. 1. The ‘‘Golden Age’’ of mosquito control, 1896–1949.

182 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MOSQUITO CONTROL ASSOCIATION VOL. 29, NO. 2

made seminal advances in the development ofspreaders and other adjuvants. Long beforeRachel Carson’s Silent Spring made headlines,Ginsburg was studying and calling attention tothe impact of chemical insecticides on aquaticnontargets.

Then, as today, one of the world’s mostrespected scientific journals was Science. Gins-burg published an astonishing 5 papers in thejournal. His last Science paper was published in1948, although he did not retire until 1960 whenhe was replaced by future AMCA presidentDonald Sutherland. He may well have beenmosquito control’s chief innovator in the 1930sand 1940s, and surely he is among our field’smost overlooked figures.

Another Rutgers innovator and a student ofGinsburg, Philip Granett, devised the earliestsynthetic repellents in the 1930s, including ‘‘Stay-Way’’ lotion. This was followed by ‘‘Rutgers6-12’’—which went into 150 million bottles ofrepellent distributed to troops in World War IIand was still standard issue in the Vietnam War.Its composition and synthesis were militarysecrets. Industry made millions from Rutgers6-12. Rutgers and Granett? Not so much. Profes-sor Granett contributed to protecting countlessdeployed warfighters from vector-borne diseases,but his greatest contribution to mosquito controlmay have been elevating the study of repellentsfrom an observational to an experimental science;the methods he established still form the basis forrepellent research and development (1940 J EconEntomol 33:563–565). Granett’s work receivedsignificant national attention, and he was featuredin Life magazine, a prominent photographicperiodical that chronicled the 20th century. (Askyour parents!)

And, the man we honor today: Thomas‘‘Tommy’’ Desmond Mulhern (Fig. 2), whoseextraordinary journey in mosquito controlspanned a continent and 6 decades. His legacyin mosquito control is unequaled.

Tommy Mulhern was born in Brooklyn, NY,on June 15, 1908. He grew up at Fort Hancock,NJ, a coastal area with extensive salt marshes andmosquito problems that could only be describedas biblical: clouds of mosquitoes were so thickalong the Jersey Shore that it was said you‘‘couldn’t tell Tom from Dick or Harry.’’ Bednets were standard issue because the state was rifewith malaria.

Our story begins in 1925, when Tommy took asummer job as an Inspector for the MonmouthCounty Mosquito Extermination Commission,his 1st of 3 summers with the Commission. Fortransportation, the Commission provided himwith a bike. His insecticide? Kerosene. Hisapplication equipment? A garden watering can.So outfitted, he was charged with the well-beingof Rumson, a community heavily infested withmillionaires who demand relief from the mosqui-to scourge. Tommy spread kerosene wherever hedetected larval habitat. He had nothing in hismeager arsenal, however, to combat the bitingadults—hence the expression: ‘‘once they’re onthe wing, you can’t do a thing.’’

In 1926 Tommy Mulhern graduated fromMiddletown High in Leonardo, NJ, where heearned the Good Citizenship Award. He enrolledat Rutgers University that fall in mechanicalengineering and, thanks to Monmouth County,soon caught Headlee’s eye. Headlee, in anotherbrilliant hire, adds Tommy to the RutgersDepartment of Entomology in 1928 as a drainageengineer. To sweeten the pot, Headlee replacedTommy’s bicycle with a Ford model T convert-ible as his 1st in a long string of state cars. He alsosoon became Headlee’s administrative assistant,which had an incalculable impact on the trajec-tory of his career. Talk about ‘‘standing on theshoulders of giants!’’

Ever wonder why mosquito control in the USAstarted in New Jersey? Two words: Aedessollicitans (Walker). Most of the state wasoverrun with this salt marsh menace. The focus

Fig. 2. Thomas Desmond ‘‘Tommy’’ Mulhern. (A) 1926, (B) ca. 1949, (C) ca. 1984.

JUNE 2013 MEMORIAL LECTURE 183

of the Rutgers mosquito program when Tommysigned on was reducing Ae. sollicitans habitat byditching salt marshes. It was a brutal business.Smith’s 5 million feet of mosquito ditches werehand dug and hard won. Headlee neededmechanized ditchers.

The pride of New Jersey ditchers in 1928was ‘‘Big Bertha,’’ a 30-ft, 20-ton leviathan(Fig. 3A)—all to dig a 10 3 24 inch ditch, andat a glacial pace. On Tommy’s 1st day at Rutgers,Headlee charged him with rescuing the machine,which was buried so deeply in a marsh thatTommy had to disassemble the ditcher and carrythe parts to higher ground for reassembly.Nevertheless, the record shows that Tommyshowed up for work again the next morning.Headlee knew Big Bertha was impractical. Themachine was too awkward, too slow, too costly,and too heavy. In addition, transporting amachine this massive from place to place as thework demanded was difficult and expensive.Headlee needed an engineer. Headlee neededTommy Mulhern.

Fortunately, Rutgers had assembled a state-of-the-art machine shop, and this became Tommy’scandy store. All his life, he loved to tinker withmechanical things. He was the kind of kid thatwould take his mother’s toaster apart to see whatmade it tick, and then put it together again. (I wasthe same, except for the part about putting ittogether again.) Tommy got busy building newmachines with an eye toward faster, cheaper,lighter. In less than 3 years, he shrank the ditchers

down to less than half their previous size, cost,and weight. His final design in the 1940s was ashotgun marriage of a farm tractor and a dozeroutfitted with oak treads (Fig. 3B). The hybridwas not only economical but could excavate1,500 feet of mosquito ditch in an hour. And themachine was so light that it could operate withoutthe use of mats. Earlier, men would exhaustthemselves leap-frogging mats across the marshto keep their machines from becoming mired inthe mud. Tommy’s designs contributed to ditch-ing most of the New Jersey and much of theeastern US coastline.

Tommy also supervised building a massivesystem of dikes and tide gates to reduce tidalflooding of low-lying areas and thereby minimizemosquito habitat. He contributed several inno-vations including a ‘‘subterranean inverted si-phon’’ drainage outlet (1944 Mosquito News4:122–129). Drifting beach sand often blockedconventional open ditches, whereas his designwas self-cleaning: water flow from the marsh andout the pipe prevented sand from clogging theoutlet. And because it was buried below ground,the system was protected from the storms thatperiodically destroyed other tidal drainage sys-tems. His design is still in use today.

Tommy labored his entire career to advancespray technologies. As an early example, hedesigned a truck-mounted platform in the 1930sfor the applicator to stand on while oiling catchbasins, an extra-long handle to reach the target,and a spray compressor that ran off the truckengine. Not impressed? A decade earlier Tommydid the same job with a bike and watering can. Inthe early 1940s Tommy was beginning to hit hisfull stride when he began truly groundbreakingwork on thermal fogging. Particularly novel wasa study in which he strapped a spray tank ontothe front bumper of his state car and ran thespray lines through the engine and out theexhaust, creating an aerosolized spray plume foradult control. I believe the idea was to do yourabatement work during the morning commute.Tommy was fearless; he was always eager toexperiment. He was not afraid to fail because heunderstood that you cannot innovate otherwise.By 1949, Tommy’s last year in New Jersey, hehad perfected his final gift to New Jerseymosquito control: an aerial delivery system thatlaunched a state-wide spray effort the same year,a program currently in its 6th decade. There islittle question that Tommy is the Father of theNew Jersey State Air Spray Program, whichtreats thousands of acres each season.

Tommy understood that in New Jersey he didnot have just 15 stakeholders, that is, the 15county superintendents, but 4 million, and hereached out to state residents in new and creativeways. For example, Tommy persuaded NewJersey Bell to include a mosquito control

Fig. 3. The evolution of mosquito ditchers: (A) BigBertha, 1928, with Thomas J. Headlee at the controls.(B) Mulhern’s design, ca. 1946.


educational leaflet with phone bills: 750,000 weremailed out in 1947. And Tommy took theopportunity in the leaflet to tout Granett’sRutgers 6-12 repellent. Nice!

Surveillance is a key service activity. Tommyconducted surveys upon request, especially toidentify sources of mosquito outbreaks. Here heis shown in a rare image sampling a catch basinfor Culex (Fig. 4)—rare because Tommy wasalmost always behind the camera. But he was notsimply performing surveys, because he saw his

most significant service role as education. Whenin the field, he took every opportunity to workone-on-one with mosquito control workers tohelp them acquire the skills they needed to dotheir jobs more effectively.

The area of research Tommy is best remem-bered for is pioneering adult surveillance meth-odology, particularly his invention of the NewJersey Light Trap. Tommy’s trap (Fig. 5A)became the ‘‘gold standard’’ for adult surveillancefor the rest of the century and is still in use allover the world. New Jersey alone deploys astatewide network of 80 New Jersey Light Trapsfor adult surveillance every season, enablingmosquito control workers to compare adultprevalence against historical means and makedata-based management decisions. Manufactur-ers of Tommy’s trap sold thousands of units andmade serious money over the next 70 years.Rutgers and Tommy? Not so much.

He never stopped tinkering with mosquitotraps, relentlessly tweaking them, modifyingthem, improving them (Fig. 5B). Never. But hisgenius was less in the design of effective trapsthan in his resolute advocacy for using them tomonitor mosquito populations. Today we allunderstand the importance of surveillance, butdon’t think there wasn’t intense resistance to thisidea at the time. There was! Tommy was the tip ofthe spear in overcoming that resistance. I don’t

Fig. 4. Tommy Mulhern dipping for Culex in aUnion County, NJ, catch basin, ca. 1942.

Fig. 5. Tommy Mulhern examining a mosquito trap collection (A) in New Jersey ca. 1940 and (B) at hisresidence in Fresno, CA, 1970.


know who the ‘‘Father’’ of mosquito surveillanceis, but a solid case could be made for TommyMulhern.

Tommy was exempt from military serviceduring World War II due to age and children.But he did not stand idle. He contributed hisspecial expertise to the war effort by partneringwith Ginsburg to team teach a Sanitary Ento-mology course, the 1st of its kind, to ArmyMedical Corps personnel who were rushed to thePacific to combat vector-borne diseases. And, atthe request of the military, he participated insecret tests assessing DDT.

The year 1935 was noteworthy in New Jerseybecause it was the year of the last outbreak oflocally acquired malaria. People today look at youas if you are insane if you tell them New Jerseyhad malaria within living memory. Tropicaldisease, right? The year is also notable for whenthe cornerstone for AMCA was laid in Trenton,NJ, in a January meeting called by Headlee. NewJersey mosquito control leaders met with theircolleagues from nearby states to form the EasternAssociation of Mosquito Control Workers(EAMCW). Of the 25 Charter Members, 15 werefrom New Jersey, including 3 from Rutgers:Headlee, Mulhern, and Ginsburg. Headlee waselected president and earned the accolade‘‘Founding Father of the American MosquitoControl Association,’’ whereas Tommy was theassociation’s 1st Secretary-Treasurer, running allassociation business for the next 17 years.

In 1940 EAMCW authorized publication of anin-house bulletin, Mosquito News. This was abold step, because the bulletin ate fully one-halfof the association’s entire annual operatingbudget. That’s right, $72! Tommy was aninfluential figure in the launch, and he was namedto the inaugural editorial board. The 1st issue waspublished in 1941 in New Brunswick, NJ, andTommy’s fingerprints were all over it. MosquitoNews, later renamed the Journal of the AmericanMosquito Control Association (JAMCA), wasdestined to become the global face of mosquitocontrol.

Tommy contributed to the new journal’ssuccess in every conceivable way—not only byhis long service on the editorial board, butthrough sustained publication, contributing arti-cles on research, literature reviews, associationbusiness, obituaries, history, editorials, etc. Noone ever published more or with greater diversity.But it was the strong operational flavor he addedto Mosquito News that was central to thejournal’s early acceptance among local mosquitocontrol workers. Mosquito News increasinglyassumed Tommy’s identity, with a foot in boththe academic and operational worlds. The De-cember 1985 issue of the JAMCA was dedicatedto Tommy in recognition of his immense role inthe journal’s success (Fig. 6).

A proposal was made in 1939 for the EAMCWto expand into a national organization. The ideawas controversial, and three different factionsquickly emerge: those like Headlee and Mulhernwho champion a nation-wide organization, thosewishing to merge with the American Associationof Economic Entomologists (which became theEntomological Society of America in 1953), andthose against any change that might dilute NewJersey’s dominate role. With Headlee in declininghealth and unable to exert his influence andguidance, the debate became rancorous. In 1942New York State Entomologist Robert Glasgowwrote Tommy a lengthy letter venting hisfrustration over the ‘‘distrust’’ and ‘‘provincialloyalty’’ that had become obstacles to change.Glasgow asked Tommy to fill the leadership voidleft by Headlee and to bring his own powers ofpersuasion to bear. Tommy became the peace-maker, listening to people, and nudging themtoward a consensus. He reconciled the differenc-es, and in 1944 EAMCW was rebranded as theAmerican Mosquito Control Association. Henever relinquished his leadership role, devotinghis professional life to the association and itsjournal.

Without Tommy Mulhern, AMCA may havenever formed. This was one reason why AMCApresented him with an anniversary clock in 1953in recognition of his distinguished service (Fig. 7).The Mulhern family still treasures the clock, aprecious artifact reaching back to the earliestdays of the association.

Smith, Headlee, Ginsburg, Granett, and Mul-hern were pioneers in source reduction, insecti-cide development, surveillance, spray technology,biological control, trap technology, repellents,and much else. These Jersey Giants made NewJersey the World’s Toolbox for mosquito controlfrom 1896 until the end of the Golden Age … in1949.

Fig. 6. Tommy Mulhern, 1985, with issues of hisbeloved Mosquito News. Volume 1, Issue 1, is at hisright elbow.


The 1st crack in the wall came in 1944 whenHeadlee, who had led the Rutgers program anddepartment so ably for 32 years, retired due topoor health and was replaced by Bailey B.Pepper. But this was more than just a change infaces … it was a change in vision.

Headlee had shared Smith’s vision that ‘‘re-search must guide the mosquito movement.’’They saw the program as an idea factory, a toolfactory, not just for New Jersey but for the worldmosquito community. Pepper, however, had anarrower vision that placed service above all else.Under Pepper, the program became far less anarm of the university than an arm of the state—an organization that did not understand eitherresearch or creativity. Research was marginal-ized. Publication was devalued. Innovation melt-ed away.

Moreover, Pepper was highly autocratic, aleadership style inconsistent with the researchphilosophy of Smith and Headlee or of Rutgerstoday, all of whom understood that the keyproduct of a university is innovation andinnovators. Pepper shaped a scientific cultureover his quarter century leading the program thatdiscouraged risk taking, and when risk taking isrepressed, creativity is invariably a casualty.

There was growing friction between Pepperand Mulhern based on different visions andpersonalities—friction amplified by Tommy beingwithout question the most influential person inmosquito control at the time. Tommy was no fool;he saw a purge was coming and sought supportfrom New Jersey’s mosquito control superinten-dents. But none were so bold as to cross Pepper inthose bygone days when the entomology headcontrolled every superintendent’s budget. In 1948

Pepper appointed Manley Jobbins to lead themosquito program. Mr. Jobbins was a soft-spoken, gentle man who fit Pepper’s vision welland was no threat to Pepper.

Tommy was, of course, wounded by hisdemotion; but he never resented it, at least notfor long as this simply was not in his nature.Tommy felt that resentment was like drinkingpoison and then waiting for the other guy to die.Nevertheless, the California Department ofHealth smelled blood in the water and snappedTommy up like he was the last cold beer in hell.In November 1949, Tommy packed his car andyoung family and began the Long March west,pulling a 25-ft trailer. Ask grandpa what coast-to-coast travel was like before there was an interstatehighway system. New Brunswick to Fresnobecame a 3,200-mile, 16-day odyssey.

Tommy’s move to California completed theparadigm shift from Smith and Headlee’s visionto Pepper’s. Local, not global. A strong, not alight hand. Service, not research. Headlee hadwanted innovators. Pepper wanted people whoplayed well with others and were unlikely tochallenge him or his new vision.

Opportunity. Yes, the train has left the station.No, there won’t be another one for 60 years.

Pepper’s programmatic shift to service hadlong-term implications in view of events transpiringoutside New Jersey at the time. Federal governmentinvestments in research during World War II hadled to fabulous technological advances in radar,antibiotics, jets, plastics, nuclear power, pesticides,etc.—advances that launched entire new industries.So in (wait-for-it!) … 1949 (you can’t make thisstuff up!) the US Congress massively increasedresearch funding, creating the National ScienceFoundation and other funding conduits for uni-versities. Others were thrilled to hop onto a gravytrain that the Rutgers mosquito program missed.

The impact of Tommy Mulhern leaving NewJersey cannot be stated better or more clearlythan in the following passage from GordonPatterson’s book The Mosquito Crusades: ‘‘Mul-hern’s move marked a transition in the history ofthe mosquito movement. During the first halfof the 20th century, New Jersey served as themovement’s focal point. In 1949, California andFlorida emerge as the new powers.’’

Gordon was being kind—Rutgers and NewJersey fell off a cliff in 1949. The RutgersUniversity mosquito program fell almost over-night from a world to a regional power—muchlike England 100 years ago. Today, 64 years afterTommy left for California, the Rutgers Center forVector Biology is climbing back up that cliff. The30 presentations the Center will deliver at thismeeting, covering basic to applied to operationalresearch as well as our outreach activities, willpermit you to judge for yourself how far back upwe may have come.

Fig. 7. Tommy Mulhern, 1953, with clock presentedby AMCA in recognition of his extraordinary service.


Tommy spends the rest of his career inCalifornia. So does AMCA as the association’sbusiness office, based at Rutgers and adminis-tered by Tommy since 1935, relocates with him.Tommy maintains his central mission of troubleshooting for mosquito abatement districts state-wide. He continues to work closely with districtsto advance mosquito control technology by‘‘transforming research into practice.’’ But hisresponsibility as technical consultant is now farmore challenging, as ‘‘the Golden State’’ is nearly20 times larger than ‘‘the Garden State.’’

A key motive for California luring Tommyaway from New Jersey was to use his New Jerseyexperience to grow California mosquito control.Tommy was a driving force in the formation ofmany if not most California mosquito abatementdistricts. The prospect of having this kind ofimpact must have played a role in persuadingTommy to leave a state where mosquito controlwas already mature.

Tommy no sooner unpacked his bags than theCentral Valley was hit with major western equineand St. Louis encephalitis outbreaks. There werehundreds of cases, 50 deaths, and many survivorssuffered permanent neurological impairment.Tommy was right in the middle of it all. Tommyand California responded by establishing a stateviral surveillance program, coming on-line wellbefore similar efforts elsewhere. Perhaps now youunderstand what Gordon Patterson was sayingabout the torch passing from New Jersey.

But viral surveillance was only one componentof the broad-based approach Tommy coordinat-ed and mobilized. At the core was a dynamic,cutting-edge Action Plan activated in 1953 thatfocused on threat assessment, once again cutting-edge and well ahead of its time. Tommy placedspecial emphasis on pretreatment inspections toavoid areas where natural enemies were alreadydoing a good job, permitting sharper targetingand reduced chemical use.

Tommy also maintained his service role byconducting surveys upon request in those local-ities lacking an abatement unit. He identifiedmosquitoes when requested, but as always, hesaw interactions with local mosquito abatementpersonnel as teaching moments. Increasingly, JobOne became education, that is, training. But theone-on-one training Tommy specialized in forNew Jersey was less practical in a state the sizeof California, so Tommy developed early shortcourses covering mosquito biology, identification,spray technology, and myriad associated topics.He also was instrumental in the launch of thevector control operator’s certification programand served as editor and principal author forCalifornia’s 1st training manuals in 1973.

Tommy was still an engineer at his core butwith diminished emphasis on ditching and farmore emphasis on spray dispersal technology. He

continued where he left off in New Jersey, withstudies on swath width, nozzles, formulations,droplet spectra, calibration, and meteorologicallimitations. In time, he became a major player inthe evolution of aerial application, especiallyfrom helicopters. But always in partnership. Forexample, he worked extensively with CaptainGeorge Stains, US Navy, on the development ofthe 1st nonthermal aerosol machines (i.e., coldfoggers), a partnership that was prelude to Stainscreating Navy Pesticide Aerial Unit 9. They alsocollaborated to run the 1st high-altitude/low-volume sprays experiments. Tommy had played alead role in coordinating state and local emer-gency control programs responding to arboviraloutbreaks in 1952, 1958, and 1969, so he wasacutely aware of the need for a tool for large-scaleemergency treatments. The technologies of the1960s gave a mere 60-ft swath width so only150 acres could be treated in an hour of flighttime. Working with UC-Davis Ag Engineeringthey achieved a one-mile swath, just as Tommyhad predicted. Tommy’s career was built onadvancing mosquito control through collabora-tion. He understood that you can accomplishalmost anything if you aren’t concerned aboutwho gets the credit.

Tommy’s mosquito control expertise wasuniversally recognized. Brick by brick he hadbuilt an international reputation. Consequentlyhe had frequent opportunities to serve as aconsultant, accepting assignments with the Navy,CDC, AID, WHO, PAHO, and other prestigiousorganizations to Egypt, Iran, Central and SouthAmerica, Saudi Arabia, China, Switzerland, andmany other countries. His influence and impactextended far beyond the borders of New Jersey orCalifornia.

We all have reason to be proud of Tommy, notjust New Jersey and California. He was everyone’sfavorite son, as you would be hard pressed to findan association remotely connected to mosquitocontrol of which he was not a member. He waseven engaged at the local level, servingas a Trustee for the Fresno County district for20 years. New Jersey and California both dedi-cated annual meetings to Tommy: New Jersey in1994 and California in 2007 on the occasion oftheir 75th anniversary. Let’s tally this all up: 2state association dedications, a national meetingdedication, and a JAMCA issue dedication. Whoamong us can even aspire to such things?

It was Tommy’s role in AMCA, however,where he had his greatest impact—as a founder,in winning support for a national organization, inhelping to launch and sustain Mosquito News, inhis decades of service. It is difficult to imagineany AMCA activity for which Tommy did notvolunteer. He endures as an AMCA icon.

Tommy recognized the historical significanceof what they were doing very early. The New


Jersey, California, and AMCA archives containcountless photos and records taken and carefullypreserved by Tommy. We all owe Tommy a hugedebt for being the mosquito community’s unof-ficial archivist during those crucial early years.

How many are aware that it was Tommy whofounded the AMCA Newsletter 40 years ago? Orthat it was Tommy who had the foresight toincorporate AMCA as a nonprofit in 1948? Andon and on and on.

Tommy filled every AMCA leadership postthroughout the association’s growth and devel-opment, an astounding total of 28 years in keyleadership roles: Secretary-Treasurer (1935–1950), Executive Secretary (1950–1952), President(1968–1969), Executive Director (1974–1978 and1980–1985). Did I mention Tommy’s GoodCitizenship Award in high school? Did Middle-town High call that right or what?

It seems safe to say that Tommy is the mosthonored AMCA member ever. The associationhas placed at his feet every accolade at itsdisposal: Medal of Honor (1973), HonoraryMember (1979), Executive Director Emeritus(1985), JAMCA dedication (1985), ‘‘AMCA’sFirst 50 Years’’ dedication (1985), AMCA 50thAnnual Meeting dedication (1985). And today,the final missing piece, the Memorial Lecture.

One of my favorite autobiographies opens withthe simple sentence: ‘‘I was born in a house my

father built.’’ The fathers that built our housewere Smith, Headlee, and Mulhern. Smith’slegislation established the need for NJMEA.Headlee created the EAMCW. And if todayAMCA is the shining city on a hill we think it is,it’s because Thomas Mulhern provided theleadership for the association to transition froma regional to a global association. No one servedAMCA longer, better, in more roles, or was morefaithful.

And what of Tommy Mulhern the man? Thosewho knew him invariably describe him as modest,tireless, possessing inexhaustible enthusiasm forwhatever task was at hand, and someone whoalways gave his best. Despite a strong work ethic,he was not a unidimensional drone. He was anavid photographer his entire life, developing andprinting his own photographs as early as the1920s when doing so was not a simple matter. Heloved to ski (Fig. 8). He was a boat enthusiast:power boats, sail boats, freshwater, saltwater. Henot only collected and restored string and windinstruments, he taught himself to play many ofthem. He was a strong family man (Fig. 9),married 58 years, with 3 sons. His job demandedextensive travel, but he kept work and family inbalance, seldom missing weekends home. Hissons often accompanied him on summer mosqui-to surveys. Family vacations were usually mergedwith AMCA meetings. The family developedclose relationships with mosquito workers fromall over the world, many of whom were houseguests and became household names. The mos-quito community was in every way an extendedfamily for the Mulherns.

Fig. 8. Tommy Mulhern on the California skislopes.

Fig. 9. Tommy and Helen Mulhern with sons Martin,John, and Tom Jr., New Year’s card, 1957. Note theAMCA presentation clock on the fireplace mantle.


At age 76, Tommy suffered a heart attack, whichclosed out his professional activities. When hisbeloved wife Helen died, Tommy moved to aretirement home, where he loved to tell mosquitocontrol stories. It seems unlikely that he ever had totell the same story twice. In 1993, the MosquitoWarrior who began his career in Jersey’s saltmarshes passed away quietly in California’s CentralValley, a man rich in years, experience, and the loveof his family. His journey was complete.

Tommy saw it all. From bicycles to helicopters.From kerosene to synthetic pyrethroids. Fromsprinkler cans to ULV sprayers. From bare armsto light traps. And from a small regionalorganization with an in-house ‘‘bulletin’’ to anassociation and journal of international stature.To have seen it all is remarkable, but to havecontributed significantly and repeatedly to it all isextraordinary.

Tommy Mulhern was an Engineer, Scientist,Educator, Inventor—not that he invented manythings outright, but he was masterful at puttingneeds and technology together. And he was anInstitution Builder—this institution.

We shall not see his like again. A man ofunmatched influence in mosquito control. A mandeeply passionate about this Association. And a

man who was deeply wounded in midcareer, butwho did not falter, did not stumble, did notpause, but simply pressed on … to become alegend.

Wounds … they heal. Scars … they fade. ButGlory … Glory is forever.

Welcome home, Tommy. Welcome home tothe state where it all began. Welcome home to theAmerican Mosquito Control Association.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Legends never die; the past is never gone. Theyare the great rock upon which we have builttoday. I thank AMCA for the opportunity to tellTommy Mulhern’s story within the context ofmosquito control’s Golden Age, Scott Cransfrom the Archives Committee for uncoveringmany exceptional images and useful literature,and Ary Farajollahi and Scott Crans for usefulcomments on an earlier draft. I am grateful to theassociation for permitting me to speak beforeGordon—no one likes speaking after Gordon.And I am deeply appreciative to the Mulhern andGranett families for sharing cherished photo-graphs and memories.


memorial lecture - rutgers university

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