The Weirton Area Chamber of Commerce has held 89 editions of its annual membership dinner and awards banquet.

Brenda Mull has been directly involved with about one-third of them, a run that just might have reached its end.

Mull, who has spent 29 years with the chamber –the first eight as office manager and the last 21 as the executive director — announced during Tuesday’s gathering at the Lauttamus Event Center that she would be retiring from the job that she said she truly loved sometime this year.

“Tonight’s banquet will be a little more special to me than most, because this will be my last as chamber president,” she said.

While her announcement came as a surprise to many of the local business owners and professionals from across the Tri-State Area who are chamber members, the guest speaker for the evening made it special.

That would be her son, Jason “Jay” Mull, who is the director of golf operations at St. Clair Country Club. He ended up in Pittsburgh after a stint in the Navy and a long career in golf –including spending more than 20 years at the Trump National Golf Club in Charlotte, N.C.

All of that success, he said, can be traced back to how he was raised in his hometown.

“No matter where life has taken me, whether it was around the world serving with the Navy or my career as a PGA professional, Weirton has always been the place that shaped who I am,” he said. “This is a steel town — there’s a strong work ethic, accountability and pride. You don’t grow up here without learning to show up early, stay late and take care of people. Those values don’t leave you –they travel with with you.”

Mull found his love for the game early, he said, learning the sport from his father, the late Bill Mull — a scratch golfer who recorded 16 holes-in-one. That’s seven more than Jason, who started to caddy at Williams Country Club at the age of 14 and would become a member of the Weir High golf team.

While golf is a component of his job, Mull explained, he’s heavily involved in the business side. That includes overseeing the operation, the staffing, merchandising and long-range planning of the facility.

The sport generates a lot of money — in total, about $200 billion a year, he added. To put that into perspective, Trump National generated about $27 million a year. St. Clair, he said, comes in at about $17 million a year, adding it is, hopefully, on its way to becoming a $20 million-a-year operation. It’s an activity that is an asset in the business world because of the connections that are made while on the course.

He added that his job allowed him to be around many star athletes, from NASCAR drivers and the PGA elite to a guy who had a pretty successful run in college basketball at the University of North Carolina and helped to transform the NBA into the athletic and economic giant it has become — Michael Jordan.

Jason said everyone in his family was proud of the work his mother has done.

“She’s been a driving force in the community, supporting businesses, building relationships and moving Weirton forward,” he said. “She has been an incredible mom. It’s sad to see her step down, but I’m sure she is not going to go away. I’m sure you’re going to see her around a lot.”

He added that he grew up in a special place.

“Places like Weirton don’t raise people — they prepare them. I’m proud to be one of them,” he said.

During the report she always has offered as part of the dinner, Brenda Mull said the chamber added 18 new members in the past year. She added that the chamber has a full slate of activities planned for the coming month. Among the local business highlights were the opening of Jalsa, which features food from India and takes over Havana Nights each Monday, and the anticipated opening of Jersey Mike’s at the end of April.

She also cited the collaborative effort among the chamber, the John D. Rockefeller Career Center, West Virginia Northern Community College and the city that ensures the holiday light displays will remain a bright spot in the community and will continue to bring people from across the region into town.

“That is what we call working together to make things happen,” Mull said. “That’s the way we do it. Good things happen when you work together.”

That ability to bring people together to get things accomplished, that skill to inspire camaraderie and the drive to keep things moving forward, were among the greatest attributes Mull brought to her job.

“Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for allowing me to be here for 29 years, to serve you and to be here when you had questions and to support you,” she said.

(Gallabrese, a resident of Steubenville, is senior writer of the Herald-star and The Weirton Daily Times)