Mike Mahony

1946 - 2010

Mike Mahony passed away on Saturday, October 2nd.  He was at home with family and he was ready to go after 13 months of battling the cancer and sepsis.  Our hearts are broken and we miss him so much. As you can imagine, he handled this terrible year with courage and dignity.  He had a strong will to live and many times surprised his doctors by overcoming seemingly hopeless odds. Mike is survived by his wife, Jan, his two children, Randee and Tom, and his five grandchildren.

Mike’s 50 years since graduation from Notre Dame High School:
Mike went to grammer school at St. Jane Francis Grade School in North Hollywood. After grammar school Mike went to Notre Dame High School.  Mike liked to hear the news from the Forty-sixer.com web page.  Like many of us from NDHS, Mike went across the valley to San Fernando Valley State College, now CSUN where he met Jan.

After graduation from San Fernando Valley State College in 1968 with a B.S. in Business Administration and a major in Accounting, Mike joined the Marine Corps.

 He was in Quantico, Virginia, at Officer Candidate School until June 1969, where he graduated as a 2nd Lieutenant.  After a month of further training at Camp Pendleton, he left for Viet Nam and was assigned to 3BN, 26th Marines, who were attached to 3rd Marine Division.  He spent 6 months as a Platoon Commander doing standard 03 (rifle platoon) activities North of Da Nang.  Per Mike, this meant “dealing with enemy activities in the mountains, Amtracking up rivers and slogging through rice paddies”. He went to Embarkation training in Okinawa for one month and during his last 6 months in-country he was with 1st BN, 1st Marine Division in a logistics billet.  Returning to the United States after 13 months, he spent 3 ½ years at Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD), San Diego, as a Series Commander, Adjutant and Company Commander after augmenting from reserve status to regular Marine Corps.  After his 3 ½ years at MCRD, San Diego he resigned his commission and left the Marine Corps as a Captain.  Mike received a Bronze Star for combat in Viet Nam. Like many Veterans he never spoke much about his time in the service and very few knew about his Bronze Star.  He always attributed much of his success in the business world to the Marine Corps, for developing his leadership skills as a 22-year-old platoon leader.

 After leaving the Marines, Mike went to work for Ross Perot’s Electronic Data Systems as a System Engineer.  After 18 months of reflection, he needed to change and found his life’s work in medical manufacturing in the medical device industry where he spent the rest of his career.  During this time he earned his MBA from Pepperdine University.  He started at McGaw Labs in Glendale, learning manufacturing management, and ended up as a plant manager.  He worked in many manufacturing functions for various divisions of Home Health of America now Caremark, American Hospital Supply, Becton Dickinson, and eventually for the industry giant, Tyco Healthcare, which is now Covidien.

 Mike retired in 2002, having spent his final 10 years in Massachusetts as Vice President of Manufacturing/Distribution for Tyco Healthcare.  He was involved in many of the acquisitions Tyco made during his career and always joked about retiring just before all the scandals.

Mike liked to hear the news from the Forty-sixer.com web page.

Written by Phil Mundy