Mulligan retires from Noble

SALISBURY — Eileen Mulligan, administrator and chief operating officer of Noble Horizons, is retiring after 43 years at the facility.

When she came to Noble in 1974, there were 20 cottages for independent living and the Riga Residence, a residential hotel with up to 26 people, she said in an interview Monday, Dec. 3.

“No medical facilities,” she said.

Now there are 50 cottages. Noble offers its 184 residents four levels: independent living in the cottages; the residential hotel with single rooms and suites; intermediate care; and 24-hour skilled nursing care.

There is a special care unit for those with Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia, and short-term residential rehabilitation and out-patient rehabilitation have been added to Noble’s roster of services. The Noble campus now encompasses 122 acres and, with a staff of 150, is one of the largest employers in the area.

Mulligan said when she came in 1974, the facility was only two years old, and nobody had thought about adding services.

“But I came from a facility that had that continuum of care.”

She said it was also becoming apparent to Noble’s parent company, Church Homes, that there was a market for expanded services.

The idea of expansion required some salesmanship, however — not least to the existing residents.

“They resented the idea of a ‘nursing home.’”

But Mulligan, aided by circumstance (someone fell and broke a hip), was able to convince people that a more comprehensive approach would be helpful and desirable.

Mulligan said the long-projected boom of older people retiring and looking at places like Noble Horizons is just starting.

She herself is an example. “I’m 1947, the beginning of the Baby Boom.”

She plans to split her time between a home in Naples, Fla., and a cottage at Noble.

As far as the facility’s future goes, she said her replacement will have to deal with funding uncertainty from both the federal and state governments, combined with more and more clients who rely on such funding.

She said new residents are “older and frailer,” and contrary to popular belief, not wealthy.

“We’ve had our share of wealthy people, but we have many people who need public assistance.”

She said she considers the expansion in the number of cottages to be the high point of her tenure.

“To me the most pleasurable part is managing these units,” which are largely free of federal or state regulation.

“You can do things you can’t do with Uncle Sam looking over your shoulder.”