A Celebrated Career

Bob Mulloy has always loved sharing what he knows. The 2024 Philip C. Monahon Award winner has been in the home inspection profession for more than 35 years and continues to be an avid contributor to the ASHI New England chapter. But just as he loves teaching, he also loves to learn. 

“I have been teaching my whole life now. I’ve taught in many places,” he said, noting everywhere from Northeastern University to the Bristol-Plymouth Regional Technical School, from state-required classes for home inspectors to chairing his chapter’s education committee for many years. ASHI President-Elect Lisa Alajajian Giroux and Mike Atwell were students in Mulloy’s first class at Northeastern. 

“I’ve come to realize that inspectors are very smart people, and they’re always seeking to become smarter,” he said. “They’ve learned to keep up with the always-changing technology we have in order to understand what they’re seeing when doing an inspection. It’s a forever learning type of a profession we’re in.” 

Accolades 

Mulloy is also no stranger to awards—from being recognized as Chapter Member of the Year to receiving the President’s Award multiple years. Mike Atwell, ASHI Past President and current ASHI NE board member, estimates Mulloy has given more than 200 hours annually to his chapter. He’s contributed widely as education chairman, as a regular presenter at monthly meetings and conferences, and more. He said Mulloy’s role as education chairman, which he assumed in 2006, has been profoundly important to the chapter and is especially time-consuming. 

“As chairman, Bob was responsible for arranging a roundtable discussion and a more formal speaker presentation for each of our 10 monthly meetings per year,” Atwell said. “Each meeting provides three approved continuing education credits for ASHI and The States of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Connecticut. All the conceiving, planning, and publicizing for each of these meetings fell on his shoulders.” 

Mulloy further contributed his time and knowledge as a regular presenter at the chapter’s monthly meetings, and he regularly spoke about report writing, defect recognition, and the Massachusetts Standards of Practice. 

“In the 20 years I have known Bob, he never missed a deadline or failed to come through in a pinch,” Atwell said. “If he said he’d do it, it was done. In any volunteer organization, this is rare indeed.”

Mulloy has always viewed ASHI members as colleagues, not competitors, and he believed whatever he did to improve the skills of ASHI members would benefit all members and the profession, Atwell said. “Bob did not invent this attitude; he inherited this collegial approach from past members, but he championed it—and this tone runs through our chapter to this day as a result. He inspired a generation of New England inspectors to strive for high standards of technical proficiency and ethics.”

While Mulloy retired from ASHI and home inspections in 2015 due to health issues, he continues to teach the 75-hour, two-semester MA Associate trainee course at Massasoit Community College that’s required in Massachusetts for anyone wanting to become a home inspector. After the course, those students must pass a national examination, perform 25 observations with a licensed inspector, and then work for a licensed inspector for one year. Mulloy gets them prepared.

Bob Mulloy
At a Glance

Bachelor of Science,
University of Massachusetts, 1969

Master’s in Education,
 Cambridge College, 1989

Licensed MA home inspector
in 1980, Allsafe Home Inspection

Joined ASHI, 1985

Joined ASHI-New England, 1985

Cape Cod Community College home inspection teacher

Northeastern University inspection teacher

Bristol-Plymouth Reginal HS MA Associate Trainee Class teacher

Massasoit Community College MA Associate Trainee Class teacher

Education Chairman for the ASHI-NE Chapter, 15 years

License renewal teacher for ASHI-NE and ASHI-NNE chapters

Chairman of every ASHI-two year annual conference, 15 years

Three-time ASHI annual conference speaker and recipient of numerous chapter awards

We recently caught up with Mulloy to learn more about his experience in the industry—and how he got there. 

What were you doing before home inspection? 

I was teaching physical education. I was an athlete in college and high school. We were Massachusetts champions, kind of ranking back in 1964 in high school gymnastics. I got injured badly as a member of the University of Massachusetts gymnastics team in my college career, and that wiped out the whole program for me. I couldn’t do it anymore. 

While I was teaching, I got a letter in the mail; I was getting drafted. It was my first year of teaching, and I was married with one child, so that was really scary. I went to get the physical done, and I failed the physical because of my elbow injuries in college. I continued teaching and enjoyed it for a number of years before I found that I could make more money in one week as a contractor than with my teacher’s salary. Then I learned about home inspectors.

How did you find home inspecting? 

Way back then I checked the Yellow Pages, and there were only three companies around. I started studying. I was reading every book I could find, and eventually I found out about ASHI New England and went to a meeting. 

I attended and I found that I was not as smart as I thought I was. I absorbed everything I could, like a sponge, taking notes while listening and asking questions. I was overwhelmed by the information I didn’t know. I continued the ASHI monthly meetings until eventually I became chair of the education committee. 

What was your experience like as education chairman? 

It was my job to bring in monthly speakers all the time. Then I became one of the speakers myself. I presented numerous presentations at the ASHI New England chapter and also to the ASHI New Hampshire chapter. Then I began doing the requirements necessary in New Hampshire to get license renewals. I did license renewal lectures as well.

I also organized a conference we held every two years for ASHI members locally. That was quite a job. My partners and my committee helped, and it was a lot of fun. After that, things evolved. I did some presentations for ASHI National—in Pennsylvania, California, and one down in New Orleans, too. 

What do you love most about this work? 

I’ve loved helping people the most out of the work. Helping people, teaching people about a home and how it works. I try to put them at ease. 

How do you feel being named the 2024 Philip C. Monahon Award winner? 

The best thing anyone can ever receive is the recognition of his or her peers. Thank you to all ASHI members for this honor.