Commander Merritt David Mullen, USNR, Retired, 88, a longtime resident of Ridgecrest, passed away of natural causes on June 22 at an assisted living facility in Orange County, 16 months after his wife Yasuko passed away at the same place.
He was born in New York City in 1934 and spent much of his youth in Northport, Long Island. The son of a sea captain in the U.S. Merchant Marines and U.S. Navy, Merritt joined the U.S. Navy Reserve in 1956 and was active for eleven years as an aviator; he flew Martin P5M Marlins in the Philippines before being stationed at the Marine Corps Air Station in Iwakuni, Japan, where he met and married Yasuko.
After ending active service, he returned to college and received a Master’s Degree at USC in engineering, graduating top of his class. In 1970, the Naval Weapons Center in China Lake hired him to work on the Tomahawk Cruise Missile program, first as a project manager, then avionics manager, and finally as a lead systems engineer. He retired in 1995 and lived in Ridgecrest with Yasuko until 2021.
Merritt was known for his love of commuter trains and transportation, family genealogy, ships, planes, and computers. He also really enjoyed reading detective novels. Merritt was a devoted husband, father, and grandfather.
He is survived by his son David, his daughter Margaret, and his grandson Spencer. His son John passed away in Ridgecrest in 2018.