John Durand Mulligan

1924 - 2015

John Durand Mulligan of Gladwyne John Durand Mulligan, horseman, geologist, soldier, farmer and gentleman, died May 16th, 2015, in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania. He was 90 years old. John, ever modest, stoic and brave, faded peacefully away. He was born in 1924 at his family’s farm in Avon, New York, one of the most beautiful dairy farms in New York State. His parents, Edward and Frances Taylor Mulligan, were avid horse riders, and Edward was Master of the Genessee Valley Hunt, with whom John rode as soon as he was able to sit in a saddle. John also showed champion springer spaniels. The Mulligan-Taylor family spent their summers at Rivermede in Keene Valley, New York, and had a cabin on the upper lake at the Ausable Club. John Mulligan’s great-grandfather, John Durand, was president of the Cleveland - Pittsburgh railway line. John’s grandfather, Dr. Edward Mulligan, of Rochester, New York, was a renowned surgeon and the personal physician and best friend of George Eastman, founder of Kodak. John’s great uncle, Henry Durand, attended Yale University and wrote the Yale song, Bright College Years. John Mulligan attended the newly formed Millbrook School in Millbrook, New York. He then attended Yale University, graduating class of 1945W as a geologist. He trained as a marine in World War II, but was not shipped out before the war ended. After the war he worked in the oil business as a geologist for Socony Vacuum (which was subsequently renamed Mobil Oil). He was assigned as a geologist to the jungles of Columbia for several years, before returning to the US in 1950 to work in Texas. To occupy his weekends John signed up for the reserves. Little did he know that he would soon be called up for the Korean War. He was soon shipped out to relieve the beleaguered Marines at Chosin Reservoir, and then conducted numerous patrols with his company in the frozen hills of Korea. He was shot in the head with the bullet lodging in his helmet as he was carrying a wounded comrade to safety and was awarded the Purple Heart. After the war, John returned home and settled back in with Socony/Mobil in Tyler Texas, where he married his first wife, Joanne Askins, with whom he had a son, Mark. John was called back to run the family farm in Avon in 1962 when his father died. John’s nephew, Jeffrey Mulligan, continues to run the Mulligan farm. John was an avid amateur archeologist, attending digs from East Texas to England and put together an impressive collection of pre-columbian and native-American artifacts, including pottery bowls and arrowheads. As a widower, John married Virginia Lea Claiborne in 1985. They spent the next thirty years living in Haverford, Pennsylvania and traveling the world together. John also enjoyed volunteering as an 18th century carpenter at the Colonial Plantation in Ridley Creek State Park. John and Virginia Lea moved to the Waverly Heights retirement community in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, in 2011. John is survived by his beloved wife, Virginia Lea, his two stepchildren, Ahna E.C. Petersen and Richard Lunden, and his three grandchildren, Noah, Liam and Luella. A memorial service at the Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, 625 Montgomery Avenue, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, was held at 2:00pm on Wednesday, May 27th, 2015. In lieu of flowers, donations are requested to be made to the Trevor Zoo at the Millbrook School or to the World Wild Life Fund.