2009 Outstanding Community Service Award Recipient
Harold Mullowney
B.Sc.'77, B.Ed.'78, M.Phil.'90
The Alumni Award for Outstanding Community Service acknowledges
alumni who have given of themselves to improve the lives of people
and their communities. Recipients of this award will have
demonstrated exceptional community and volunteer service at home
and/or abroad that has made a difference to the well-being of
others.
Harold Mullowney has yet to campaign for a seat on the Bay Bulls
council. It’s not that he doesn’t believe in local
government – far from it, he has served as a mayor, deputy
mayor and a councilor – but he is simply too busy to do it
the old fashioned way. On the other hand, he doesn’t really
have to – Bay Bull residents quite happily volunteer to do
that for him.
And that’s not surprising when you look at the remarkable
record of this community champion. A high school science teacher
with an MA in philosophy, Mr. Mullowney has a broad range of
interests and they all converge in his love for Bay Bulls and the
Irish Loop area.
With the collapse of cod fishery in the 1990s, the community of Bay
Bulls was on the ropes, but people like Mr. Mullowney were not
ready to give up. He firmly believed that if the community pulled
together and developed a diversified and integrated economic base,
they could become a model for small community economic
development.
Through a series of partnerships and cost saving measures, the
council, with Mr. Mullowney as its driving force, created a
transparent and cost effective system encouraging private
investment and mixed industrial development as well as tourism and
agriculture revival.
Being a teacher, Mr. Mullowney understood that economic development
has to go hand in hand with community development. He championed
such projects as investment in the local library, family resource
centre, soccer field and playground areas. He endorsed the East
Coast Trail stewardship agreement and supported the expansion of
the trail near the community. A man of many talents and interests
himself, Mr. Mullowney is active in a range of community
initiatives from those promoting environmental stewardship to
history and heritage preservation groups.
His work did not pass unnoticed and in 1997 he was recruited to
serve on the Irish Loop Development Board, one of the 20 regional
development boards in the province. His service there was no less
impressive than the achievements in his own community. Under his
leadership, and he is the longest serving chair of an economic
development board in the province, the board has created an
extensive development plan encompassing new and traditional
economic activities. He also ensured that the composition of the
board reflects the diversity of the region’s population.
Today, next to local business leaders, seniors and youth
representatives also have found their place at the table. The board
has also achieved gender equality in terms of its composition. Mr.
Mullowney’s work was recognized in 2004 with Community
Economic Development Award for Outstanding Individual
Achievement.
For his exceptional community service, Harold Mullowney is this
year’s recipient of Outstanding Community Service Award.