You really could not call Barbara Mulholland a modern-day Robin Hood, but you would be hard-pressed to find anyone else in Las Vegas who took more money from the rich to give to the poor.
In this case, however, “the rich” — Citibank — gave Mulholland its blessing to take millions of its dollars and dole them out to many worthy nonprofit organizations in her capacity as the bank’s longtime senior vice president for community affairs.
Barbara Linden Mulholland, whose strong leadership in Citibank’s philanthropic efforts, provided significant funding for the Three Square food bank, Communities in Schools, the Nevada Ballet Theatre, After-School All-Stars, and many other local organizations, died Friday at her Las Vegas home. She was 74.
Mulholland’s family said she had no known health problems at the time of her death. The cause, they said, was apparent sudden heart failure.
A celebration of life gathering for the Las Vegas resident of 39 years will be 10 a.m. Friday at Palm Mortuary at 7600 S. Eastern Ave.
“The sunshine has gone out of a lot of people’s lives, including mine,” said longtime Las Vegas attorney Stanley “Stan” Hunterton, Mulholland’s companion of 25 years. “She was a persistent optimist who never gave up on helping anyone.
“When she turned down organizations’ requests for funding she would then help them with advice and mentoring, showing them guidelines and procedures that would demonstrate to future potential donors that they would be responsible in spending their (gifted) money.”
After 30 years at Citibank, Mulholland retired in 2014, but soon after became a full-time volunteer at WestCare Foundation’s Women and Children’s Campus, a health service organization. There, Mulholland helped the organization recently receive its largest ever grant.
Mulholland’s family, in a news release issued Monday announcing her death, described Barbara as having an “infectious laugh, engaging smile and warm personality.”
Born Barbara Linden on Feb. 12, 1942, in Detroit, Mulholland often said she was proud to share her birthdate with President Abraham Lincoln. Barbara and her four brothers and sisters were raised in Grosse Pointe, a suburb of Detroit. She attended high school and college in Michigan.
At age 23, Mulholland moved to New York City and began working in advertising. Mulholland moved her family to Wilton, Conn., in 1970.
Following a divorce in 1977, Mulholland and her three children moved to Las Vegas, where she worked for Saks Fifth Avenue, the Tropicana hotel-casino and the Las Vegas Pro-Am Golf Tournament.
In 1983, Mulholland became the fifth of what would be thousands of employees hired at the Citibank credit processing center. She quickly rose through the ranks at the bank — at the time, the second largest private-sector employer in Nevada — to become the senior vice president for community affairs.
When people would ask her what that title meant and what her actual job was, Mulholland often mused: “I give away the bank’s money.” At the peak of Mulholland’s leadership in community affairs, the bank’s philanthropic contributions averaged $5,000 to $15,000 per year per charity.
Despite Mulholloand’s vital and time-consuming job responsibilities, she never lost sight of the importance of raising her family, putting all three of her kids through Bishop Gorman High School.
After her retirement, Mulholland took drawing classes at UNLV.
In addition to Hunterton, Mulholland is survived by two daughters, Megan Wilkes (and her husband, Paul) and Heather Mulholland Kenney; a son, Patrick Mulholland; a sister, Joan Linden Gibson; three brothers, Robert Linden, David Linden and Richard Linden; a grandson, Ryan Wilkes; and four granddaughters, Katie Wilkes, Charlotte Wilkes, Piper Kenney and Brooke Kenney.
The family said donations can be made in Barbara Mulholland’s memory to WestCare’s Women and Children's Campus, 5659 Duncan Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89130.
Ed Koch is a former longtime Las Vegas Sun reporter.
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