Mullikin was born and grew up in Jamestown, where he was active in drama club and a member of the football, wrestling and tennis teams before graduating from Greeneview High School in 1982.
He joined the Air Force, where he trained as a heavy equipment operator, and learned to play volleyball. After four years at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, he was discharged and moved to the state of Washington, where he worked in construction, coached and played volleyball and became a coffee connoisseur.
“We’d come back here on vacation, and they didn’t have any specialty coffees here,” said Mullikin, who decided to move back to Ohio and open a coffee shop with his brother, Dean Mullikin. “Out in Washington, they had stores with espressos and cappuccinos, but in Ohio we couldn’t find anything. It was just a little too early for coffee shops here. We were pioneering back then.”
In 1996, Mullikin and his brother opened Donnikin’s Gourmet Coffee in the food court at the outlet mall near Jamestown. He had to get up at 3 a.m. to open the store but enjoyed the camaraderie with the regular customers, who came to appreciate specialty coffees.
Meanwhile, Mullikin also began running triathlons with Dean, who is the cross-country coach at Greeneview High School.
Mullikin met Cheryl Shellabarger Terry while coaching one of her two daughter’s volleyball team. Cheryl was a widow and mother who worked as the chief financial officer of Carbide Probes in Beavercreek.
“She’s a co-owner of her family’s business,” said Mullikin of his wife, who also breeds horses at a stud farm in North Carolina and has a stable of horses in Ohio. “She’s worked since she was 17 years old. She’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”
The couple wed, and Mullikin helped raise Christina and Jessica Terry, who currently work for Carbide Probes.
The Mullikin family grew even larger with the addition of Joshua, who is in the Navy; Max, a student at Kentucky Christian University; and Mick, a sophomore in high school.
After selling the outlet mall coffee shop, Mullikin began coaching the women’s volleyball team at Wilmington College.
In 2006, Mullikin and his brother were arranging a triathlon that included running, biking and canoeing when they came across the Rapely-owned canoe rental shop at 3234 Washington Mill Road in Bellbrook on the Little Miami River.
Mullikin decided to buy the shop that rents 180 canoes, kayaks and tubes and to create a website at bellbrookcanoerental .com. He drives clients to the Narrows in Beavercreek, where they begin the 5.2 mile trip down the Little Miami River to Bellbrook Canoe Rental, where they land.
“It’s a family-style river,” said Mullikin, who developed a triathlon spin-off business called Atomic Race Timing. “There are some tiny rapids, but it’s a pretty gentle stream. People can pull over and picnic on the way back”
Contact this columnist at (937) 432-9054 or jjbaer@aol.com.
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