A Wrestler of Crocodiles

Okay, quick quiz: what word first comes to most people’s minds when they think of accountants? If you said anything like surfing, body-licious, suave, wino, gangsta’, daredevil, black-belt, or rock star, these are all secondary—believe it or not—to the number one word on the Family Feud survey: taxes.

It’s an interesting relationship that accountants have with taxes. Figuring taxes are a large part of our bread and butter, and yet as our training requires, we loathe them. We are Americans, after all, and heritage dictates that we should complain about them. Taxes are slimy, quite frankly, and it takes a special sort of person to thrive on getting their hands dirty in the pursuit of the tax lizard.

The next time you stop by Lawhorn & Associates, take a gander at how grimy Darryl Mullins hands are, and you’ll recognize him as the Tax Manager. Um, we mean grimy with taxes. We keep plenty of hand sanitizer around here if you’re worried. But we digress. Darryl and Steve Glindmeier seem to pass the Tax Managing duties back and forth like good patriots. Of course, being a little bit off also helps in getting a tax job.

Darryl got his BS in Business at Cameron University in Lawton, OK. He picked up his CPA in the same State in 1980. He grew up as an Army brat and lived as far afield as Germany (aber, er ist nicht ein Berliner). Originally from Knoxville, he was the only child in the family who didn’t live within fifty miles of mom and dad, so he decided to move back home last year. Well, at least he claims this is the reason he moved back, but we have conjectured other theories (see below).

Darryl’s passion in life is . . . well, we won’t get into that embarrassment. Let’s see, um . . . he likes playing his guitar and writing songs. His daughter, Brooke Mullins, is a master sculptor (you can check out her amazing artistry at www.brookemullins.com), and he is quite proud of her ability to look at something and turn it into stone. He has had multiple pets over the years, including (but not limited to) the following: cats, guinea pigs, rabbits, raccoons, possums, armadillos, and a wife named Melva. You think we’re joking, but he actually stole Melva from the Orkin Man. Now, if you had the Humane Society and pest control looking to get revenge on you and your spouse, wouldn’t that be enough to make you move back near mom and dad too? Okay, maybe not, but apparently a greasy tax job always seems to do the trick for some people.