Thomas Muller; Quashed Disney Va. Project
Thursday, November 23, 2006; Page B06
Thomas Muller, 72, an economist whose study of a proposed Disney development in Prince William County in the 1990s helped kill the project, died of pulmonary fibrosis Oct. 24 at Inova Fairfax Hospital. He lived in Fairfax County.
Dr. Muller was a longtime consultant for the local, state and federal governments and co-director of the land use center at the Urban Institute.
"Contrary to Disney's, the county's and the state's assertions, Disney will not generate the kind of tax surplus necessary to reduce the county's high tax rate," Dr. Muller said in 1994. He and colleague Michael Siegel, hired by the Piedmont Environmental Council, criticized the corporation's plans and the county's oversight of the proposed 3,000-acre mixed-used complex and theme park.
Dr. Muller was an expert witness in major annexation cases in Northern Virginia from 1970 until his death. He testified before congressional committees on urban growth and land use policies. He wrote a number of books, the best-known of which were "Fourth Wave: California's Newest Immigrants" (1984) and "Immigrants and the American City" (1993). Of the latter, the Washington Post Book Review called it "an important and valuable book for policy maker and layman alike."
Born in Podolinec, Slovakia, on Oct. 29, 1933, he survived the Holocaust by hiding in the houses of family friends.
He moved to the United States after World War II and graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 1956. He received a master's degree in operations research from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J., in 1961, an MBA from UCLA in 1962 and a doctorate in managerial economics from American University in 1969.
A resident of Northern Virginia for more than 40 years, Dr. Muller headed urban research projects for the Systems Development Corp. in Santa Monica, Calif., and then in Falls Church before going to work for the Urban Institute. He formed a consultancy in the 1990s. He also taught part time at American, George Washington and George Mason universities and lectured at Cambridge University.
Survivors include his wife of 47 years, Sharon Muller of Fairfax County; three children, Steven Muller and Joseph Muller, both of Los Angeles, and Beth Helman of Ashburn; and a brother.
