Dear fellow Listmembers:
The following is an obituary for a very dear friend of ours who died recently. David Mulkey was a member of the 1968 United States Olympic Cycling Team.
I had the pleasure of talking with John Howard this weekend at the Sea Otter Classic bike races at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California and he shared some candid memories of being on the 1968 Olympic Cycling Team in Mexico City with David and another great California cyclist, Rob Parsons.
If anyone knows how to contact Oliver "Butch" Martin, former U.S. Cycling Team coach (before Eddie B. took over), please forward info to me directly. Butch was a very close friend of David's.
Thanks. Jan and Peter Johnson
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Published March 23, 2002, in the Santa Cruz Sentinel
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/
David Mulkey, 55, Olympic cyclist
By Heather Boerner Sentinel staff writer
David Mulkey's friendliness always amazed friend Rob Parsons. It's what got Mulkey so far in professional cycling and won him friends.
Mulkey died March 14 in San Luis Obispo. He was 55.
"He just had this ability to connect with people," said Parsons, a Soquel resident who rode with Mulkey on the 1967 Pan American Team and again as part of the 1968 U.S. Olympic cycling team.
"He was so personable and friendly," he said. "It seemed like every time I turned around, he'd be talking to someone he didn't know. It's very different from me, and something I really admired in him."
Mulkey was born in Sunnyvale in 1947 to a California pioneer family. He lived in Santa Cruz County from 1979 to 1995, when he moved to San Luis Obispo.
Family members called him irreverent and witty, a man who appreciated puns, a tinkerer who loved building engines.
A competitive long-distance runner, Mulkey switched to cycling in the 1960s. Parsons remembered meeting Mulkey when he was an up-and-coming cyclist. A natural athlete, it didn't take long for Mulkey to rank as one of the country's best.
Parsons credits that to Mulkey's natural talent as an endurance athlete, but also to his openness. Parsons, at the time a veteran cyclist, said Mulkey - unlike many other cyclists - welcomed advice and coaching. That, combined with Mulkey's quick wit, helped him quickly master the sport, and his fellow cyclists.
After the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, Mulkey continued to ride, organizing a team for a five-day stage race in Colorado in 1977. He also launched a career as a tree surgeon and arborist, running his own business for 25 years.
Son Ivan Finneran Mulkey remembers his dad's resourcefulness. He once built a dump truck by installing a hydraulic lift on the back of a flatbed truck, and created a minibike for his son with a 2½ -horsepower lawnmower engine.
"I don't know how fast it went, but as a 10-year-old I felt like I was going 50 mph," Ivan Finneran Mulkey said.
Contact Heather Boerner at hboerner@santa-cruz.com.
David Mulkey
BORN: Aug. 28, 1947, in Sunnyvale.
DIED: March 14, 2002, in San Luis Obispo.
EDUCATION: Foothill Junior College, San Francisco State University.
OCCUPATION: Competitive cyclist, tree surgeon.
SURVIVORS: Son Ivan Finneran Mulkey of Santa Cruz.
FAMILY: Father Marion Jefferson Mulkey, mother Inez JohnsonMulkey and sister Sonja Mulkey Randle died before him.
SERVICES: Private memorial planned for April 7.