Dallas High School and the greater Back Mountain community are mourning the death of local businessman and 1989 Dallas graduate Jeffrey Mullen, owner of Main Optical in Luzerne. Mullen died after an 18‑month struggle with complications stemming from a massive brainstem bleed, according to family members.
Mullen was widely known for his quiet generosity and for the personal touch he brought to the eyeglass shop he opened on Main Street in the early 1990s. Former classmates recall that the storefront’s upstairs apartments became a gathering place in their twenties—steps away from the onetime Voodoo Lounge—and that Mullen often refused payment for minor lens repairs, insisting that “seeing well shouldn’t break the bank.”
“He taught me the craft, handed me a job, and never once made me feel like I owed him,” longtime friend Mark Walters said Monday. “That was Jeff—help first, talk later.”
A fixture at local charity golf outings and youth sports sponsorships, Mullen also provided free fittings for dozens of low-income residents each year, colleagues said. “If someone walked in short on cash, he’d wave them to the chair anyway,” Main Optical optician Lisa Harney recalled. “He’d say, ‘Pay me when you can see me coming.’”
Dallas High School plans to honor the alumnus with a moment of silence at next month’s commencement ceremony.
