John J. Mullen, a longtime resident of East Hampton and founding partner of Mullen & McCaffrey Communications, a marketing, advertising, public relations, and fundraising company, died of a heart attack on November 27. He was 73.
His company was involved in dozens of political and issue campaigns as communication strategists and fundraisers, and produced scores of fundraising mailings. He was a consultant to the New York State Democratic Committee.
Mr. Mullen helped pioneer public education strategies for recycling programs in New York State including all the East End Towns.
Mr. Mullen was an early activist in the Long Island environmental movement. He was a founder of Suffolk for Safe Energy, New York State Against Jamesport and Citizens to Settle Shoreham and communications director and fundraiser for the organizations throughout the 1970s and ’80s. He was a major player in the closing of the Jamesport and Shoreham nuclear power plants.
He was proud of his role in helping to keep Long Island nuclear free, according to his family, and being an antagonist of the pro-nuclear Long Island Lighting Company where he spoke at the company’s contentious annual meetings.
Mr. Mullen was a charter member of Group for the East End and a fundraising consultant to the organization for more than four decades, and advised many other environmental groups on Long Island and the East End.
He was a guest speaker at national marketing and fundraising conferences and an adjunct associate professor in the Humanities Department at Southampton College.
Mr. Mullen also did stints as the office manager of Dan’s Papers, advertising director of The Long Island Traveler Watchman, and general manager of The Southampton Press Publishing Company.
He and his wife, Mary Ann McCaffrey, moved to New York City for a period where he worked at Ogilvy & Mather advertising. They returned to the East End, where they founded Mullen & McCaffrey in 1984. The company specialized in health care, education, and environmental protection.
Along with Ms. McCaffrey, he was a founding member of Full Circle Farm in Bridgehampton, the East End’s first organic community farm. After moving to Amagansett, it eventually became Quail Hill Farm.
As a resident of The Circle in the Village of East Hampton, he founded The Circle Association, a village civic group that helped prevent the destruction of The Circle for a parking lot.
Mr. Mullen was raised in Garden City, the son of John Mullen and Alice Haggerty Mullen. He graduated from Garden City High School and Fordham University. He studied in Paris and lived for more than a year in Rome. He spent all his summers in East Hampton, including as a camper and counselor at the former Camp St. Regis in Northwest Woods before becoming a year-round resident in 1972. He enjoyed traveling in Europe with a special interest in historic architecture.
He is survived by his wife of 40 years, two sisters, 11 nieces and nephews and many friends whose lives he touched with his warmth, humor and good works.
He loved East Hampton’s beaches, his family said, and his ashes will be scattered at sea. A memorial will be planned for the spring or summer of 2021.