University Daily Kansan / Friday, December 8, 1989
3A
Engineering dean builds life on devotion to work, family
By Beth Behrens
By Beth Behrens Kansan staff writer
Although the love of the Irish shows in his Notre Dame school spirit, the crimson and the blue are not far behind for Tom Mulnazii.
Mulnazzi, associate dean of engineering, said that he came to the University of Kansas 10 years ago to help improve the image of the KU School of Engineering. Since then, he has thousands of miles of Kansas highways driving not only the University but also the importance of safe roads.
"People in Kansas don't even know we have an engineering program at KU," he said. "They think of K-State as the engineering school in Kansas. 'I do seminars all over the state, and part of the reason is to let people know we exist."
In keeping a handle on all of his interests, Mulinazzi said, he doesn't have one job, but three: associate dean, professor, and researcher for the KU Transportation Center.
"The problem with my job is that I can't control my interruptions," he said. "The phone rings, or a student comes in and wants to know about a transfer or why I didn't let them into grad school, so I end up staying up 'until one o'clock Monday night grading exams."
In addition to those obligations, Mulinazzi also advises KU athletes, keeps statistics for the KU men's basketball team, is the chairman of the University of Kansas Athletic Corporation, chairman of the KU Transportation Study Board and finished serving on the Fulbright scholarship selection committee last month.
Before coming to the University, Mulinazzi was a professor at the University of Maryland, Kathy, his wife, said they lived 15 minutes away from campus, but because of heavy traffic, the drive sometimes would take him more than an hour. She said the stress had caused him to have chest pains.
Mulinzaa said his doctor had told him that his high blood pressure would kill him unless things changed.
Workaholic
"When I lived in Maryland, my doctor said I had to get started on medication," he said. "I said I was going to Kansas and I'd be gone in three months. He said I needed to get a doctor as soon as I got there. I came to Kansas, and I didn't get a doctor for a year because I was too busy."
When he finally saw a Lawrence doctor about 10 years ago to have his blood pressure taken, he was diagnosed as normal. His blood pressure had dropped more than 40 points.
His wife said none of the family members would be happy if they weren't constantly busy, but no matter how involved her husband may be in countless organizations and projects, he keeps one element of his life constantly on his mind: his family comes first.
A story his uncle told him years ago about Italian war heroes became Mulnazzi's own vision of what the importance of family should be.
He said his uncle was fighting against England with the Italian army when he was captured. Because the English offered to send his family money, his uncle joined the side of the English.
"That's why you never see any books about Italian war heroes," Mulinazzi said. "They care about their families too much."
Kathy Mulnazzi said there had been many times their oldest daughter had asked why God had to give her an Italian father because of his strict rules and strong feelings about what a family should be. But she said that that the children came to understand they were fortunate to have a father interested in their activities
Years of coaching softball leagues and being scout master for his son's Boy Scout troops have kept Mulnazizi involved in his children's lives, despite his hectic schedule at work.
His oldest daughter, Teresa Mullinazzi, said her father often tried to put himself in her shoes.
"He sometimes would apologize to me because he wasn't sure how he should act," she said. "He'd tell me, 'I'm sorry,' because he never had a sister and wasn't sure how he should act or respond."
Eduaction came first
Mulnazzi was an only child, born and raised in the blue-collar city of Ottawa, Ill., in a two-bedroom home where his father, Leonard "Happy" Mulnazzi, still lives.
His father had one year of high school education and his mother had only two, but Mulinazzi said there was never a question of whether he was going to college. The only question was where.
"We never really talked about it," he said. "I think they must have realized the importance of getting an education. It wasn't that they were trying to just give me what they didn't have."
He said he was going to go to the University of Illinois, but was accepted at Notre Dame, where he started as a math major.
"After we finished beating each other up, we sat on the ground for a while," he said. "He asked me what I wanted to be and I said an algebra teacher. I wanted to teach math. I asked him what he wanted to be, and he said he wanted to be a civil engineer."
Mulnazi said he had wanted to be a math teacher since he was in grade school because all of his friends had trouble with it, and he knew he could teach it better. But a fight he had with his best friend in eighth grade made him change his mind to engineering.
Tom Mulinazzi reminisces about former students who autographed his football.
"Now, his dad was an engineer, but I didn't know what they did. He told me they built highways and bridges and made sure we all had safe water to drink. I guess I always kept that in the back of my mind."
Summers were spent working for the Illinois Highway Department, and he what he was doing, he evenly deserved his eight grade friend was right.
He said math was too abstract for him, but engineering was more concrete. He never negretted his math background, though, because it paved the way into a career choice that made sense to him.
"My father tells me I'm fortunate to have a job I really enjoy," he said. "It's sad that everyone can't enjoy what they choose to do."
Careful adviser
Julie James/KANSAM
He said when he advised students, including his own children, about the classes they should take, the first thing he asked was whether they took the roughest courses possible so they could leave all options on them.
"When she came back from an engineering weekend in Florida, when she decided that was what she wanted to do, she said, 'Dad, why didn't you tell me about engineering?' " he said. "I told her that if I would have tried to tell her about what I did, she would have
He said he never encouraged his children to follow in his footsteps, because engineering wasn't for everybody. His daughter Christi Mulinazzi recently decided she wanted to be an engineer, but it wasn't because of career coaching at home.
been turned off it."
His daughter Teresa Mulinazzi, KU junior, said she had been going to her dad for advising since she started at the University. Although she said she was a business major, she continued to seek his advice.
"When I go to talk to him, he'll have his secretories hold all of his incisions and put a note on his door to notify him because he's with his daughter."
"His philosophy is, 'If you do you best, that all I can ask,'" she said. "If you don't try, that's when he gets mad. When you go in to talk to him, it's like you are the most important person right then."
She said lists helped him keep his life in order. Mirriads of yellow legal pads trigger lists of things he needed to remember.
Tom Mulinazi said his escape from the rat-razer was baseball. A
die-hard Chicago Cubs fans, he tried to play on the Notre Dame baseball team during his freshman year, but he ended up a bench-warmer.
Now he plays on an occasional softball league team, he said, and is a member of a Ball Park Baseball Club.
Mulinazzi said he got together every week with several other faculty members throughout the University and played statistical baseball.
"It's sometimes really bad because I find myself staring at the wall thinking about my batting order and who I will pitch, trying to figure out how to beat the other team," he even "I've got one rule, and that's that we can talk about University business. You've got to have an escape."
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