On Monday and Wednesday afternoons, you can find Andy McMullian playing poker with the Grumpy Ol’ Men and Lovely Ol’ Ladies Poker Club. Andy, one of the club’s founding members, loves a good game of poker surrounded by friends and of course, the delicious snacks.

Andy has always enjoyed the simple pleasures in life, so he spent his career ensuring that people in Florida would be able to do the same.

Before retiring in 2000, Andy spent 44 years working tirelessly for the State of Florida. Much of that time involved working with people and benefits, which prepared him for his most challenging and greatest accomplishment.

During his last 21 years with the state Division of Retirement, Andy contributed to Florida’s remarkable improvement in funding levels for state-sponsored pension plans. When he first started, pension plans were completely unfunded by the state, but by the time of his own retirement, pension plan funding had grown immensely. Today, the Florida funding level for pension plans is the third largest in the country.

Andy credits his alma mater, Chipola College, for giving him the opportunity for a successful career and a happy life. The college awarded him a basketball scholarship (his Chipola team even beat FSU at one point). The scholarship enabled him to pursue a secondary education and meet his future wife and love of his life, Betty Howell. Andy still wears his Chipola College ring and is active in the school’s appreciation club for alumni.

Helping to secure a better life for those around him is the core of Andy’s being. In his retirement, Andy applied his qualities to advance the Tallahassee Senior Center & Foundation, serving 15 years on the board, three of them as President. As president of Goodwill Big Bend, he led an organization that helped individuals recovering from addiction or other hardships receive their GED and enter the workforce.

Upon looking back on all his achievements, Andy McMullian has a clear sense of what was most important: “Meeting Betty Howell, my late wife, was the best thing I ever did.”