Obituary

Young Chang

If the origins of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra were funneled down to

one person, former and current board members agree on one name: Marcelina

“Marcy” Arroues Mulville.

She helped found the orchestra in the late 1970s and was the backbone

of what is today California’s third largest symphony orchestra and a

regular feature at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa

Mesa. The orchestra is preceded only by the Los Angeles and San Francisco

philharmonic orchestras.

Mulville died of cancer Monday at her Fullerton home. She was 90.

“There wouldn’t be a symphony today if it wasn’t for Marcy,” said

friend and symphony board member Janice Johnson of Laguna Beach. “When

she set her mind to something, it would get done.”

It was during high school that the late community activist first set

her sights on a dream to give Orange County a symphony orchestra. But

after graduating from USC as a music major -- a feat in those days,

considering women didn’t often go to college, said friend Lorraine

Lippold -- she played the violin at several orchestras, taught junior

high school and tended to her family’s citrus ranch in Fullerton because

family duties beckoned.

In 1962, she helped found the Symphony Assn. of Orange County. The

group dissolved in the early ‘70s, but Mulville got right back up and

became a charter board member of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra in 1978

-- the year the group made its debut.

Since then, Mulville helped raise funds, find volunteers and tend to

everything that needed tending as an officer on the board of directors.

“So this is quite the legacy that she has left,” said Lippold, also a

former board member and now an emeritus board member of the symphony.

“She was just constantly in there making everything work.”

James Medvitz, vice president of operations for the symphony, credits

much of the group’s history -- and even its future -- to Mulville.

“I think the symphony is on a great forward trajectory, and I think

the future of the symphony is very secure,” he said. “I think a lot of

that is a result of the efforts she made.”

Mulville’s other claims to fame include her 35-year experience as

choir director for St. Mary’s Church in Fullerton, her time as a board

member for the Orange County Performing Arts Center and awards including

the Fullerton Chamber of Commerce’s Woman of the Year in 1962.

She is survived by her sister Josephine Voorhees, stepdaughters Connie

Ricketts and Cathie Williams, a niece and three nephews.

A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Angela

Merici Church in Brea.