L.P. "Pat" Mullen
Whether he was engineering machinery or composing a song, L.P. “Pat” Mullen was always inventing something. A Salina native, Pat graduated from Sacred Heart High School and attended Kansas State University. He began his career working for his father at Mullen Construction Company and later founded Scientific Engineering, Inc. Pat passed away in 2006 at the age of 69.
A Self Taught Engineer
As a self-taught engineer, he valued innovation. Throughout his career, Pat’s projects included manufacturing custom machinery and parts for local businesses, creating a camera arm for the Space Shuttle, and building specialized nuclear reactor parts. In retirement, Pat kept his mind and hands busy in his machine shop at home. He enjoyed composing and playing music with his friends, finding great joy recording a CD with his bands “Beyond Theory” and “Utter Chaos.”
Pat also valued education. One teacher who truly touched his life was Sister Francis Ellen, who taught at Sacred Heart Junior Senior High School when he was a student there.
A Forever Gift
Pat’s inventive spirit continues to impact his hometown community through a $4.9 million gift from his estate to the Greater Salina Community Foundation. According to Pat’s wishes, the community foundation granted $2.4 million to the Sister Francis Ellen Endowment Fund at Sacred Heart. Pat established this fund during his life to honor is favorite teacher. Additionally, the Sisters of St. Joseph Nazareth Academy received an unrestricted gift of $1.2 million from the estate. The remainder of Pat’s estate gift remains at the community foundation.
Part of the gift supported the community foundation’s administrative fund. The rest of the funds were used to establish the L.P. “Pat” Mullen Fund, a competitive community grant fund that supports science, invention, arts and humanities programming for youth. A permanent grant from the fund is also awarded to KPTS for science programming each year.
A Lasting Impact
Since making its first grants in 2010, the Mullen Fund has awarded over $400,000 to benefit Saline County youth. Many of these recipients include robotics programs, science camps and art classes. The dollars are making a significant difference in the lives of local students. Southeast of Saline High School received a grant from the Mullen Fund to renovate and race an electric car. “This grant allowed our students to have the funds to add the appropriate parts needed and fix the car so that it was capable of competing in this racing season,” said Dr. Paul Ogle, grant recipient. “We had about 22
students that helped with various aspects of the electric car, while others worked passionately on the electric car during the entire season. These students were driven to keep their grades up so they could be a part of the race team. One student had over five F’s prior to the racing season but finished by passing all classes.”
Through this permanent gift to his community, Pat Mullen has left his mark on the next generation innovators and creators.
