Louis Mullenweg

1947 - 2016

Louis Charles "Chuck" Mullenweg
1947-2016
Louis Charles Mullenweg, IV, known to everyone as Chuck, was born in Houston, TX on August 13th, 1947. His father, L. C. Mullenweg, III, died of throat cancer when he was 8, and his beloved mother Gertrude Billingslea Mullenweg passed in 1966, so Chuck became independent very early.
One of his first jobs as a teenager was working at Kentucky Fried Chicken, where he actually met Colonel Sanders, and the rest of his life would often say "Seven days without chicken made one weak." Afterward he started working in the Ford warehouse with his cousin, Red Foster.
He was on two surfing teams, and enjoyed fishing, which led to a passion for conserving the Gulf. In his spare time he made leather belts and watchbands that sold at surf shops, and he bowled, once achieving a perfect game. He met his future wife, Kathleen Hageney, at a bowling alley while she was on a date with his friend.
Kathe and Chuck hit it off and they would drive in his Woodie station wagon to the beach and to hundreds of concerts, including BB King, Santana, Pink Floyd, The Who, John Mayall, Tim Buckley, and many other blues or rock and roll artists at places like Liberty Hall. More than once, he fixed that jalopy with something he found on the side of the road. Every Friday, they played pinochle or bridge with friends. They married at Corpus Christi church in Houston on April 21st, 1972, and remained happily together until his passing.
Chuck quickly became part of his new family, cherishing his mother-in-law, Norma Clesi Hageney, and Grandmother-in-law, Anna Weinstein Clesi. Their marriage was the happiest day of his life until Charleen was born in 1974. He was still working at Ford during the day, but began to complete his college degree in Computer Science at University of Houston. He worked on the Cray computers late into the night, although he had to leave for work at 6am to go to the Ford warehouse. On weekends he often did inventory at a number of Ford dealerships throughout Texas.
Armed with his new degree, he was hired by Doug King at Brown & Root, where remained for over 20 years. The job afforded a number of opportunities for travel, including taking the family to Mexico City for 2 years, and other trips to Bahrain, Singapore, Kenya, Indonesia, Nigeria, Colombia, and England. He enjoyed being part of football pools, wrote an algorithm to pick lottery numbers, and ran a lottery pool at work.
His son, Matthew, was born in 1984, the third of his happiest days. A few months later, the family moved to the Willow Bend neighborhood, where they would stay for 22 years. He was fascinated with how his children interacted with computers, and placed both kids at a keyboard very early on. He was a voracious reader of science fiction and passed that on to both of his children; imagining a better future, but more importantly being part of creating it. Chuck read Asimov's Foundation trilogy to his kids before Matt was even old enough to understand. He was intrigued with the life of Nikola Tesla, and later would own two of the cars named in his honor (first the Roadster, and then the Tesla S).
He was not motivated by money, as he considered his children his legacy. He was a father figure and mentor to many other young people throughout his life. "If you fail at raising your children, nothing else mattered." He treated everybody with equal respect, though he didn't suffer fools lightly. Everyone considered him very laidback, easygoing, funny, and eager to help.
In 2004 he co-founded OpAmp with his friends Theresa Baldwin and Greg Korinsky, and they worked together until he retired in January. When his mother-in-law passed in 2005, he and Kathe moved to their dream home in Katy. They spent the next ten years tinkering and remodeling, giving him an opportunity to practice his love of woodworking and Kathe's talent for building beautiful gardens. Often they would sit on their back deck, and applaud the sunsets.
His goal for retirement was to never wear a suit, tie, or dress shoes again. He loved practical jokes, and was known for his dry wit. He wasn't a fan of going to the doctor, but was in fairly good health until he was hospitalized by a severe illness in March. He remained in ICU for 5 weeks, still making one-word jokes in his brief moments of clarity, and planning to crash his wife's annual Brookwood women's gathering. He appeared to be on the road to recovery, when he unexpectedly passed the evening of April 13th, 2016.
There will be a memorial service at Schmidt Funeral Home on Grand Parkway on Saturday, April 23rd, at 3 PM, followed by a reception with a menu of foods he chose. Chuck's favorite charity was the Coastal Conservation Association, at joincca.org. If you have any memories or stories to share, please do so at ma.tt/chuck.