Michael Mullan was born and reared in Flushing, where he graduated from Holy Cross High School and attended Queensboro Community College.
At the time of the World Trade Center attacks, Mullan was studying for a bachelor's degree in nursing at Hunter College. He was on the 19th floor when he and other firefighters received orders to evacuate, because "the building was starting to go," according to his mother, Theresa. Mullan and two other firefighters headed down but stopped at the third floor, where they heard a Mayday call from two firefighters higher up.
"Michael said, 'I'll go get them,'" his mother said - and that was the last anyone heard of him. A registered nurse, Mullan also worked in the Mercy Hospital emergency room on a per diem basis.
He was a captain in the U.S. Army Reserve and worked for Ladder 12, Engine Co. 3 in Chelsea. He was "just about" engaged to his girlfriend, his mother said. She continued: "There's an old Irish expression: May you live every day of your life. Michael lived every day of his life."
An avid Yankees fan, "he took it as a personal insult if they lost. He loved plays and concerts, and, oh, when he played the piano, you could not tell the difference between Michael Mullan and Jerry Lee Lewis. When he got up, the piano went into cardiac arrest.
And he loved Elvis! He kept saying to me, 'Mom, you must have had a great time in the '50s.' And let me tell you, he was full of devilment and merriment and mischief."
After the attack, she visited Blessed Sacrament, his grammar school, to ask for the children's prayers. "And when I walked into the principal's office, I said, 'Do you know, this is the first time I have walked into this office that I did not get sent for?'"
Devilment aside, Theresa Mullan said, "Michael always made you laugh." He is also survived by his father, Patrick; brother, Patrick, and sister, Kelly-Ann Mary. "And don't forget," his mother said, "It's 'Mullan' with an 'a.'"
New York Newsday, 2001