Bill Mullahey

William Justin Mullahey (1909 – April 15, 1981) was an American airline executive who was a long-time employee of Pan American Airways, helping the company expand its presence across the Pacific. He also played a large role in developing tourism throughout the Pacific Islands, including leading the development of the Pacific Asia Travel Association.

Bill Mullahey
Born
William Justin Mullahey

1909
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Died (aged 71)
Carmel, California, U.S.
OccupationAirline Executive
Spouses
Mary M. Mason
​
​
(m. 1935; died 1955)​
    Margaret D. White (née Dalzell)
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1956)​

    Early life

    Mullahey was born in 1909 in San Francisco, but his father, Thomas F. Mullahey, who worked for the Commercial Pacific Cable Company, was transferred to Honolulu in 1910.[1] As a child, he was an active swimmer and surfer, and in 1928, Mullahey and two friends made local news for paddling on surfboards from Waimānalo to Mānana island, a distance of about 1 mile (1.6 km).[2]

    He attended the Saint Louis School in Honolulu[3] before going to college at Columbia University in New York. At Columbia, he studied engineering and was on the swim and crew teams. It took him five years to earn his degree, in part because he often returned to Hawaiʻi to avoid New York winters.[4] During summers, he stayed with family on Long Island and worked as a lifeguard at Jones Beach.[1] As a lieutenant in the Jones Beach Lifeguard Corps, Mullahey promoted the use of surfboards in water rescues.[5]

    When he returned to Hawaiʻi in 1934, Mullahey was hired by the Outrigger Canoe Club to establish the Waikīkī Beach Patrol based on the lifeguard patrol at Jones Beach.[6]

    Pan American Airways

    In 1935, Mullahey returned to the Pacific, joining Pan Am's first S.S. North Haven expedition to construct provisioning ports for flying boats providing service across the Pacific. Mullahey served as an underwater demolitions expert, free diving at Wake and Midway atolls to place dynamite charges needed to clear coral to create landing channels in the lagoons.[7] In total some 5 short tons (4.5 metric tons) of dynamite were used to demolish some 400 coral heads over the course of three months in the Wake Atoll lagoon.[8][9] He spent over a year working at Wake and Midway, before becoming an airport clerk in Manila, Philippines.[10] He next worked as an airport manager at Macao and Hong Kong, before becoming the Pan Am airport manager for Guam in 1937.[10] He later served as airport manager in Manila, Honolulu, and Canton.[11]

    When World War II broke out, Mullahey was airport manager in Auckland, New Zealand, from where he helped evacuate Pan Am staff from across the Pacific.[12] He also helped the crew of the Pacific Clipper map out its westward flight from Auckland to New York in December 1941.[1] In 1942, Mullahey participated in the Naval Air Transport Service South Pacific Survey Flight, which used a Pan AM PBM-3 Mariner to scout a route for regular service between San Francisco and Brisbane, Australia.[13] Throughout the war, Mullahey served as the liaison between Pan Am and the U.S. Navy, reporting to Admiral Chester W. Nimitz.[3][14]

    In 1954, Mullahey was named director of South and Central Pacific Operations for Pan Am, based in Hawaiʻi.[11] He remained with Pan Am, building the airline's operations throughout the Pacific, until his retirement in 1972.[15][16] During his time with Pan Am, Mullahey oversaw development of the Boeing 314 Clipper base at Cavite Naval Yard in the Philippines, opened a base at Suva, Fiji, arranged for the first Pan Am flights to Macao and Hong Kong, and oversaw aerial and landing surveys in Fiji, Lau, and New Caledonia, as well as opened new routes to other Pacific destinations.[11]

    Tourism promotion

    In 1951, Mullahey set about organizing the first Pacific-area travel conference with the aim of promoting tourism to the Asia–Pacific region, which had been heavily affected by World War II.[17] During the conference, held January 10–15, 1952, in Waikīkī, Hawaiʻi, 32 companies established the Pacific Interim Travel Association (PITA), with the goal of encouraging and assisting travel throughout the Pacific area.[18] PITA changed its name to the Pacific Area Travel Association (PATA) the following year. In 1986, PATA became the Pacific Asia Travel Association.[19]

    In 1953, he joined Island Holidays Ltd. as a personal investor in the Coco Palms Resort.[20]

    Mullahey was credited with establishing Hawaiʻi as a launching point for travel to the other island nations of the Pacific.[21] Due to his work building Pan Am and tourism throughout the region, Mullahey was nicknamed "Mr. Pacific".[22]

    Mullahey received several awards and honors for his work promoting tourism to Hawaiʻi and the Pacific. In 1979, he was inducted into the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaiʻi's "Order of the Splintered Paddle".[23] In 2007, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa School of Travel Industry Management and the Hawaii Hospitality Hall of Fame posthumously honored Mullahey for his legacy.[24][25] He is also included in the PATA Gallery of Legends at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu.[26]

    Personal life

    Mullahey married twice, first in 1935 to Mary H. Mason (1913–1955) of Hilo, Hawaiʻi, with whom he had a son, Michael;[10] then, in 1956, to Margaret White née Dalzell (1912–1999).[1] He died on April 15, 1981, in Carmel, California, and his ashes were spread in the Pacific near Hawaiʻi.[16]

    References
    1. "Oral History: William Justin Mullahey". Honolulu, Hawaiʻi: Historical Committee of the Outrigger Canoe Club. Retrieved September 19, 2021.
    2. "Paddling a Surfboard from Waimanalo to Rabbit Island Great Sport: Three Youths Try Hand at It: Sharks Didn't Worry 'Em". The Honolulu Sunday Advertiser. Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. April 1, 1928. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
    3. "Pan Am's Mullahey dies at 71 in Carmel". The Honolulu Advertiser. Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. April 16, 1981. p. 7 – via Newspapers.com.
    4. Lythgoe, George W. (September 16, 1934). "Hawaiian Home Call Beach Guard Back for Winter Rest". Times Union. Brooklyn, New York. p. 6 – via Newspapers.com.
    5. Blake, Tom (1983) [1935]. Hawaiian Surfriders, 1935. Redondo Beach, California: Mountain & Sea Publishing. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-911449-08-2. OCLC 10850001. Quoted in Gault-Williams, Malcolm (2012). Legendary Surfers Volume 3: The 1930s. Lulu. ISBN 978-1-300-49071-5. OCLC 927369905.
    6. Walker, Isaiah Helekunihi (2011). Waves of Resistance: Surfing and History in Twentieth-Century Hawaiʻi. Honolulu, Hawaiʻi: University of Hawaiʻi Press. pp. 80–81. ISBN 978-0-8248-6091-2. OCLC 794925379.
    7. Urwin, Gregory J.W. (2002). Facing Fearful Odds: The Siege of Wake Island. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-9562-9.
    8. Davidson, Joy; McAllaster, Wendie (2011). Historic American Landscapes Survey: Wake Island (PDF) (Report). Washington, D.C.: National Park Service. p. 6. Retrieved October 6, 2021.
    9. Rauzon, Mark J. (2016). "Wake Island". Isles of Amnesia: The History, Geography, and Restoration of America's Forgotten Pacific Islands. Honolulu, Hawaiʻi: University of Hawaiʻi Press. p. 166. doi:10.1515/9780824857547-009. ISBN 978-0-8248-5754-7.
    10. "New Pan American Airways Airport Manager" (PDF). The Guam Recorder. Vol. XIII, no. 12. March 1937.
    11. "Bill Mullahey Reaches 30-Year Mark with PAA". Hawaii Tribune-Herald. Hilo, Hawaiʻi. April 20, 1965. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
    12. "William J. Mullahey Scholarship Fund". University of Hawaiʻi Foundation. Retrieved September 19, 2021.
    13. Ford III, William C. (2014). Development of Transpacific Transport Routes by the U.S. Navy During World War II (PDF). 8th Annual Postal History Symposium & Aerophilately. Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. Retrieved September 19, 2021.
    14. "Pan Am's Mullahey to Retire June 30". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. April 28, 1970. p. 51 – via Newspapers.com.
    15. "People", Pacific Islands Monthly, vol. 41, no. 6, p. 52, June 1970, ISSN 0030-8722, retrieved September 28, 2021 – via Trove
    16. "Willam J. Mullahey". The San Francisco Examiner. San Francisco, California. April 18, 1981. p. 9. Retrieved September 19, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
    17. Hobson, Perry (2017). "Pacific Asia Travel Association". In Lowry, Linda L. (ed.). The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Travel and Tourism. Vol. 1. London, England: SAGE Publications Inc. pp. 919–920. ISBN 978-1-4833-6893-1. Retrieved September 19, 2021.
    18. Gee, Chuck Y.; Lurie, Matt (2001). The Story of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (Updated ed.). San Francisco: Pacific Asia Travel Association. ISBN 978-1-882866-86-1. OCLC 47260481.
    19. Ross, Don (March 12, 2019). "Passage: Pacific Leisure founder Alwin Zecha". TTR Weekly. Retrieved September 19, 2021.
    20. Hibbard, Don (2006). Designing Paradise: The Allure of the Hawaiian Resort. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. p. 70. ISBN 9781568985749. OCLC 787842605.
    21. Allen, Robert C. (2004). Creating Hawaiʻi Tourism: A Memoir. Honolulu, Hawaiʻi: Bess Press. p. 35. ISBN 9781573062060. Retrieved September 28, 2021.
    22. Davis Sr., Neal (2009). Mr. Pacific: My Years with William Mullahey (PDF) (Report). The Pan Am Historical Foundation. Retrieved September 19, 2021.
    23. Menard, Wilmon (October 1980). "Kamehameha's enduring edict". The Rotarian. p. 34. Retrieved October 6, 2021.
    24. "Celebrate a Legacy Honoree William J. Mullahey". Shidler College of Business. Retrieved September 19, 2021.
    25. Schaefers, Allison. "Celebration Honors Isle Tourism Legacy". Star-Bulletin. Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. Retrieved September 19, 2021.
    26. "PATA Gallery of Legends". State of Hawaii Airport System. Retrieved September 19, 2021.
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