Vesta Irene (Dunlop) Mullen

Houghton --- A tireless worker on behalf of her extended family, church, and school communities, Vesta has entered her well-deserved eternal rest. Having tenaciously fought multiple debilitating conditions, Vesta asked us in the days after her 96th birthday to “Set me free.” That final wish and prayer has been granted.

Since 1966 a resident of Houghton, NY, Vesta was a lifelong Canadian citizen, and citizen in the Kingdom of God. Born of Loyalist, Scots, and Scots-Irish stock on her grandparents’ farm in Maple Ridge, New Brunswick (NB), Vesta was the eldest of three in a preacher’s family. Her earliest memories—up to the age of six—were from a fishing village, Seal Cove, on the island of Grand Manan in the Bay of Fundy. She spent eight formative years in Marysville, NB; and graduated from high school while in Port Maitland, Nova Scotia (NS).

After teaching English at Bethany Bible College (NS) and taking on the many roles expected of a pastor’s wife for nine years in Woodstock, NB, Vesta followed husband Laurence to Houghton, NY. At Fillmore Central School for twenty-five years, she was a dedicated teacher and administrator. She found particular satisfaction in directing the Reading Center, where she served as many as one hundred or more elementary students each year. Much earlier, in 1949, Vesta had begun her teaching career in a one-room (grades 1-8) rural schoolhouse near Moncton, NB, and later taught high school English.

Vesta’s Christian faith was deep and unwavering—although never facile or glibly expressed. She wrestled with hard questions till the very end. Naturally reserved—her wry sense of humor and astute understanding of human nature often hidden to others—Vesta expressed her deepest beliefs and values through faithful daily living.

In the Houghton Wesleyan Church, Vesta served (among other roles) on the Board of Elders, taught Sunday School and led adult Bible studies, and supported the denomination’s world missions program. In retirement, she volunteered along with Laurence as a short-term missionary herself, working with teachers and children both in Russia and the Czech Republic. Wherever she saw a need in the church, she was quick to jump in—no role too humble. Wherever she lived, Vesta was also a leader in an eclectic array of community, service, and professional organizations.

Until covid closed the border in 2020, she spent every summer of her life at Beulah Camp in NB, Canada: attending worship services; conducting genealogical and historical research; tending her perennial garden; and entertaining life-long friends and relatives.

Devoted to home and family, Vesta was a compulsive multi-tasker. Few meals were ever prepared—few conversations ever held—without some professional, writing, or sewing project(s) simultaneously in process. Skilled in many crafts, she was particularly admired as a seamstress, making many of her own—and the family’s—clothes. Toward the end of her life, she rekindled an earlier interest in oil-painting. She was a musician, card-maker, correspondent, and prolific scrap booker. She loved candles, quilts, houseplants, home-made Christmas decorations, English china, and even—for the last third of her life—her computer. Curious about the world, gifted intellectually as well as artistically, Vesta read constantly and widely, especially in the fields of literacy education; children’s literature; the history of Christianity; and the history of the Maritime Provinces.

Marked by her own mother’s early and sudden death—and the accompanying loss of extended family memory—Vesta felt a strong mandate to preserve her family, spiritual, and cultural inheritance as fully as possible for generations yet to come. In retirement, she researched and wrote copiously. Among other projects, she explored the history of the church tradition in which she and Laurence had been raised. Out of this effort came her 433-page magnum opus—The Communion of Saints—a compendium of insightful and historically-contextualized profiles of 143 pastors and missionaries. At one time or another, she self-published at least a dozen additional volumes of memoir or tributes to others.

In an era when relatively few women in Eastern Canada attended university, both of Vesta’s parents encouraged her to pursue higher education. She graduated from New Brunswick Teachers College and continued her formal education at the University of New Brunswick (Fredericton) and Eastern Nazarene College in Boston, MA—graduating with a BA in English. She earned an MS in literacy education from SUNY-Geneseo.

In addition to Laurence, her husband of 73 years, and her many friends, Vesta is survived by her four children and their spouses (Shirley & Paul Mills; Barbara & Richard Pointer; Andrew & Jana Mullen; James & Darice Mullen); eight grandchildren (Katie, Kristy, Julie, Phoebe, Frances, Jessica, Victoria, and Jordan); and nine great-grandchildren (Kate, Aaron, Hutch, Barrett, Bernie, Elodie, Lucia, Oliver, and Asher). She is survived as well by two sisters-in-law (Dana Mullen and Ethel Mullen Forbes; a brother-in-law, Alvin Forbes; and numerous nephews and nieces. She was pre-deceased by her parents, Rev. Fraser and Margaret

(Graham) Dunlop; sister Patye (Glenn) McCrea and brother Wayne (Marguerite) Dunlop. Rest in peace, Vesta, thou good and faithful servant. We hope to join you on the other side.

Family and friends may gather from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm and from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm on Thursday, July 18, 2024, at the Kopler-Williams Funeral Home, 21 N Genesee Street, Fillmore. A funeral service will be held on Friday, July 19, 2024, at 2:00 pm in Houghton Wesleyan Church. Rev. Dr. Wesley Oden will officiate. Burial will be in Brown’s Flat Baptist Church Cemetery, Brown’s Flat, New Brunswick, Canada. A memorial service will be held on Wednesday, August 7, 2024, at 11:00 am in the Beulah Tabernacle in Brown's Flat, New Brunswick, Canada.

At Vesta’s request, memorial contributions may be made to the Laurence & Vesta Mullen Endowed Scholarship at Houghton University, or to Fillmore Central School. Those who knew her in the Maritimes might contribute to the Heritage Center/Archives at Beulah Camp.