Mulhearn Funeral Homes

Courtesy photo)Bruce Mulhearn, who started out in a small office in Bellflower 52 years ago and became a dominant figure in the Southern California real estate industry, died Wednesday, Dec. 26.Mulhearn, 80, president of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties, died at his home in Bay Harbor from complications from a pulmonary lung disease which he has struggled with for 11 years, according to Tim Rush, senior vice president of the firm. “Bruce was a lion, an icon, in the real estate business,” Rush said.“Everybody knew him.” Mulhearn and his wife, Tomazina, started their own real estate firm, Bruce Mulhearn Realty, in Bellflower in 1967. That evolved into Mulhearn Gallery of Homes, Prudential California Realty and, finally, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California, which has become one of the fastest-growing real estate companies in the state.The group, based in Cerritos, has grown to 22 branch offices with more than 800 sales associates and subsidiary companies involved in the realty brokerage business throughout Southern California. Berkshire Hathaway is a worldwide holding company based in Omaha, Nebraska, with Warren Buffett as its chairman and CEO.Rush said that Mulhearn was viewed as “one of the most profound thinkers and analysts in the real estate profession. He is recognized nationally for his contributions as one of the foremost instructors in the industry.” Jerry LeGris, former office co-manager at Berkshire Hathaway California and current broker associate, called Mulhearn “a great man. This is so sad.”British rootsMulhearn was born on Oct. 13, 1938, in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England. He is a graduate of the University of Durham in England. After a variety of jobs in England and Australia, he came to the United States in 1958 and obtained his real estate license in 1960 and started his own firm in 1967. In an interview a few years ago, Mulhearn said that he and his associates “have literally helped thousands of cl...

Frustrated and angry, he was ready to quit, but he learned something that was to turn him years later into a super salesman and a legendary figure in the real estate industry in California and the United States.Mulhearn, who died Wednesday, Dec. 26, at his home in Bay Harbor, loved to tell me about the advice his father gave him that was to motivate him the rest of his life: “He told me the rejection I was getting was not personal, that it was the product people were rejecting. He told me to never, never give up.”Bruce Mulhearn with Sting (real name Gordon Sumner) who was born in Mulhearn’s hometown of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. (Courtesy of the Mulhearn family)Acting on that advice at the beginning of his real estate career, Mulhearn enjoyed his first million dollars in net worth by the time he was 29. At one time, he sold 26 homes by himself in one month.By the time he died at 80, the small, 600-square-foot office he started in Bellflower 52 years ago with one salesman – himself – had grown into Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties with more than 800 sales associates and one of the top real estate brokerages in the nation.Gino Blefari, president and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices in Irvine, said Mulhearn “was esteemed throughout our entire industry and set a new standard for communicating the real estate experience. He leaves behind an industry much more advanced due to his intellectual leadership. Everyone at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices mourns his passing.”Joel Singer, CEO of the California Association of Realtors, said Mulhearn’s passing marked the end of an era. “Bruce was an incredible innovator and is the last of the legendary real estate brokerage owners in California,” Singer said. “He figured out ways to survive five recessions in the past 50 years. He was one of a kind.”In addition to surviving financial recessions, Mulhearn also survived a bombing with six sticks of dynamite of his offic...

Published 3:11 PM EDT Oct 22, 2018 Oct. 22 update: Funeral arrangements have been set for Tex Kilpatrick. A celebration of life will be 10 a.m. Thursday in the Worship Center of First Baptist Church of West Monroe. A committal will follow at Kilpatrick’s Serenity Gardens in West Monroe. Visitation will be 4-7 p.m. Wednesday at Kilpatrick Funeral Home, West Monroe. Original Oct. 19 story: Tex Kilpatrick, of Kilpatrick Funeral Homes, died Friday morning at age 86. Funeral arrangements have not been announced at this time. On Friday, Sam Henry III, Kilpatrick's close friend of more than 50 years, remembered him as a Godly man and pillar of the business community.   "He never hesitated to tell you where he stood on any matter and he never hesitated to tell you that he loved and cared about you," Henry said. "I will personally miss him immensely."   Kilpatrick Funeral Homes was started in Farmerville in 1927 by Tex's parents, Edgar Noel and Effie Kilpatrick.  Tex and his brother Kenneth Dale Kilpatrick later purchased the funeral homes from their father and owned and operated Central American Life Insurance Company in West Monroe for over 50 years.  ...