Merle Mullin
Philanthropist and Director, Mullin Automotive Museum
Merle Mullin enjoys showing, driving and racing Vintage cars along with her husband Peter. She is a co-founder/co-organizer of a biennial vintage car rally for women only. It’s All About the Girls! is an exciting, much publicized event in which 60 women from 14 countries drive 30 collectible (and fast!) vintage cars, in beautiful, rural locations in the world. In addition to female camaraderie, this rally has successfully raised a great deal of money for important, not-for-profit causes.
Mrs. Mullin is a graduate of UCLA, with a bachelor's degree in English Literature. She has enjoyed a lengthy career as an expressionistic figurative painter, having shown her work in many venues, including the Newport Harbor Art Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Mrs. Mullin has a lifelong passion for Italy. She serves on the Board of Directors of the National Trust of Italy (Fondo Ambiente Italiano), whose objective is to preserve and restore important historical monuments, gardens, Palazzi and works of art in Italy. During 15 years of part-time residency in Umbria, Italy, the Mullins raised bees, from which they made artisanal lavender and sage honey. They also produced excellent organic olive oil and prosciutto from their own rare, black Cinta Senese pigs.
She has traveled extensively throughout the world and is particularly interested in the more remote regions of the world, such as Myanmar, Borneo and Papua New Guinea, where she wrote and co-produced a documentary film for PBS, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: The Women of Papua, New Guinea.
Mrs. Mullin serves as a director of the Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, California, a museum of vintage French Automobiles and Art Deco Objects d’Art founded by her husband.
Mrs. Mullin currently serves on the Executive Board of The Blue Ribbon, the support group of the Music Center of Los Angeles, where she is very involved with the performance arts, classical music and the Children’s Festival of Music.
A recent gift from the Mullins to Art Center College of Design will help fund the new Mullin Center of Industrial and Transportation and Design at the College.
The Mullins have created Mullin Plaza and Mullin Gardens at St. John’s Hospital and Health Center in Santa Monica, California of which it has been said, “The Mullins’ passion for creating beauty and preserving historical designs for future generations has inspired them to create these important gardens and plaza as an integral part of St. John’s healing process.”
At Occidental College, where Mr. Mullin has been a long time Board Member, the Mullins, along with the noted landscape designer Art Luna, have re-envisioned the once beautiful entry garden. The Mullin Gardens now offer a soothing respite, a place of reflection and renewal for students and professors alike.
Mrs. Mullin is on the Board of Visitors of the University of California at Davis school of Viticulture and Enology, one of the most notable wine schools in the world.
She serves on the Council of the Library Foundation of Los Angeles.
The Mullins are Fellows of the Huntington Library and Gardens, in San Marino, California, where Mr. Mullin is Trustee Emeritus.
The Mullins are co-owners of Ram’s Gate Winery, Sonoma, California, selected in 2017 as the Best Winery in California by Wine Connoisseur. Their Hyde Vineyard 2013 Chardonnay has also recently been selected by Wine Connoisseur as the number one white wine in California.
The Mullins share a passion for gardens, traveling extensively to view gardens in the far corners of the world. At their home in Big Sur, California, the Mullins have created lush, hydroponic vegetable gardens, fed by an aquaponic, infinity edge lake. This pioneering garden has stirred interest around the globe, as it promises fruitful production of fruits and vegetables in parts of the world where good soil and water are practically non-existent.
Mrs. Mullin and her husband reside in Los Angeles, in the residential area of Brentwood. Together, they have five children and 13 grandchildren.
