Obituary of Steven Patrick Scully

Stephen (Steve) Patrick Scully of Melbourne, FL, died on Thursday, February 8, 2024. Born on September 10, 1957, in Gulfport, Mississippi, Stephen was the 4th child and middle son of the late Marion Janet (Tisdell) Scully and John Edwin Richard Scully, beloved husband of Siobhan Marie Mullen, and devoted father of Aislin Mullen Scully. Stephen enjoyed a loving childhood with his parents and 7 siblings Charlotte, Cheryl, John, Mark, Jan, Tricia, and Susan. He was a loyal and generous family man who was never too busy to help a friend or family member.

Stephen (Steve) moved many times over the years which fostered the skill to turn strangers into friends and sparked his passion for discovering new places and having adventures. In addition to his boundless optimism and passion for living life to its fullest, Steve’s entrepreneurial spirit was the defining characteristic of his life. During elementary school in Gulfport, Mississippi, Steve first expressed his entrepreneurship by making and selling Creepy Crawlers and Cinnamon Toothpicks to his classmates. His business creativity knew no bounds; he even packaged pieces of safety glass from a broken windshield to sell to his enthusiastic school friends…as diamonds. Though he thought they were beautiful, his mother made him return his hard-earned profits.

Steve’s serial entrepreneurship continued throughout his school years. In the late 1960s during middle school in Baton Rouge, LA, Steve’s father John dropped him off on Saturday mornings and he, along with his first employee younger brother Mark, went door to door painting addresses on people’s houses for $5 a stencil. While in high school, Steve started a company to do lawn maintenance for the Villa Rose Apartments. Though a dedicated entrepreneur, not all businesses fed Steve’s passion: he quit and vowed never to mow another lawn again, a vow he proudly kept throughout his life.

Although he walked away from that particular business endeavor, Steve never looked back. He was a man who lived in the present moment, never dwelled on the past or worried about his future, and embraced or created the opportunities of his life. To support himself while in college at Louisiana State University, he worked for Glen Schuler Painting, and it wasn’t long until he started his own successful painting company – S & S Painting. Later in Dallas, TX, Steve and his older brother John teamed up to buy and sell mineral rights all over the South, until President Reagan deregulated the oil and gas industry in the 1980s.

Over time, Steve’s entrepreneurship morphed from business ventures to endeavors that spoke to his values and passions. In Oklahoma City, Steve and John teamed up again to found AAA Publications and to produce a national Drug Awareness program, initially promoted in the schools of Oklahoma. They worked

with the local police departments and state sheriff offices to promote their program in the southern U.S. To grow Drug Awareness throughout the country, Steve approached the National Association of Police Organizations to establish a partnership for national expansion.

Following his Drug Awareness program, Steve developed TIVY, a competitive math and strategy board game that was “as easy to learn as checkers, but as challenging to master as chess”. The game was designed to help kids speak the language of Math. Steve loved math and thought it was not as difficult to master as most people assumed. He made it his mission to make math fun and accessible to kids (of all ages).

Steve’s Math game TIVY became the central entrepreneurial passion of his life. Buying out his original partners with the help of his brother John, he moved TIVY headquarters to the Los Angeles area in the 1990s. Steve thought the key ingredient missing for kids was motivation, so he developed a tournament structure and partnered with Major League baseball teams around the country (NY Yankees, Texas Rangers, Los Angeles Dodgers, Tampa Bay Rays, Detroit Tigers) as sponsors for his many events. Needing a team to produce his many tournaments each year, Steve’s 5 sisters (Charlotte, Cheryl, Jan, Tricia, and Susan) rose to the occasion, even enlisting their friends, and became his travel-ready, fun-loving, and loyal team.

In 2002, he Partnered with NASA to develop a Space version of the game for demonstration at the World Space Congress in Houston. His spokesperson was the actress Valerie Harper, through whom he met the love of his life Siobhan Marie Mullen, a high-tech entrepreneur with a background in the space industry. Or as Steve liked to call her in introductions to family and friends: his rocket scientist.

Steve married Siobhan on November 3, 2003, and soon they welcomed their daughter Aislin Mullen Scully into the world. Steve’s heart grew bigger as his life expanded with his young family. Always up for an adventure, and now married to his soulmate, Steve with Siobhan swept up their daughter Aislin in their enthusiasm, and the three of them embarked on the exciting journey of a life together.

A kindred spirit, fellow lover of math, and entrepreneur, Siobhan supported Steve’s passion for TIVY and math as an essential language in the 21st century. In 2004, Steve and Siobhan founded SAS Games and changed the name of TiVY to TiViTz. SAS Games continued to hold TiViTz Tournaments and events nationwide, boasting many sponsors including NASA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, McDonald’s, Ripken Baseball, Busch Gardens, Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, Schwarzenegger Youth Foundation, national science museums, NASA Ames Research Center, NHL teams, multiple colleges and universities, as well as Minor and Major League Baseball teams.

Although the SAS Games headquarters was established in Washington, DC, in 2006, Steve and Siobhan moved the base of their business operations to Florida where they raised their beautiful daughter Aislin and found a wonderful community of Florida friends they considered family. There, in sunny Florida, Steve focused much of his energy on spending quality family time with Siobhan and Aislin and exploring the nooks and crannies of their new home state. In fact, over the years he spent as much time as a proud basketball and soccer dad on the sidelines for his daughter Aislin, traveling for business and pleasure around the country and overseas with his wife Siobhan, and socializing with his visiting friends from around the country…as he spent working on his entrepreneurial venture, TiViTz.

With his customary entrepreneurial zeal, when the internet and online gaming became popular, Steve, with his partner in life and business Siobhan, rose to the creative challenge and seized several new opportunities. Steve converted his board games to an online version of TiViTz, initiated the TiViTz Dollar Math Club which allowed kids to play and challenge their friends from home, developed TiViTz Tuesdays at McDonald's for kids to practice their math and tournament skills, and partnered with Microsoft and the Tampa School District for online competitions. But that wasn’t enough, Steve also designed the TiViTz College Savings Game-a-thon as a way for kids to earn money for college by playing math games.

In 2018 and 2019, Steve and Siobhan invested in their most exciting phase of game development founded on the TiViTz game engine: an education-based social gaming platform for kids called Play2Learn with user-generated games in multiple subjects, capable of endless themes and skill levels in any language. The Play2Learn platform was designed to have the gaming attributes kids love (avatar customization, earned currency, virtual prizes) but still be used for educational purposes in school, as well as for at-home play “just for fun.”

Unfortunately, before the Play2Learn entrepreneurial venture hit its stride, the pandemic closed schools around the country for over 2 years and wreaked havoc on the investing community. Despite Steve’s and Siobhan’s best efforts, SAS Games became one of the many small business casualties of the pandemic. Never one to give up on a dream, TiViTz was placed on a shelf to be revived when the market was ready.

Despite the pandemic, Steve’s passion for discovering new ideas for the next great entrepreneurial opportunity never wavered. Steve didn't just put TiViTz on a shelf to sit back and relax, even though he recently had a brain tumor removed and was being treated with immunotherapy for malignant melanoma cancer in Houston… as he was not one to be idle or feel sorry for himself. Instead, Steve noodled on many possible ventures and had several projects on the table. Having “beat the cancer” with a long-term remission prognosis, he was determined and prepared to engage in his next entrepreneurial chapter.

Steve chose to pursue another business venture during his treatment that captured his passions, TargetNeuro: a neuro-science-based company. Along with Siobhan and two friends with whom they partnered; Steve worked to bring the ideas behind TargetNeuro to life. TargetNeuro delivers neurocognitive training (from situational awareness to brain processing to decision-making to quick response) for tactical teams, law enforcement officers, school resource officers, security personnel, and registered gun owners to save lives by optimizing brain function and biomechanical performance.

In a lifetime filled with business adventures from selling Creepy Crawlers to innovating his last new company TargetNeuro, Steve was ever the optimistic creator of his own life and opportunities. Despite the many businesses Steve innovated, the high note of his career was SAS Games, through which the TiViTz games and programs were developed and launched. In 2017, TiViTz was named Microsoft’s Education Partner of the Year. But long before that formal recognition, Steve received accolades from a more important audience: the students themselves. With Steve's TiViTz board games and online games, he became a Rock Star amongst elementary school kids. They cheered when he entered a gymnasium and lined up for his autograph on board games, t-shirts, and even on their arms and legs. Students enthusiastically pommeled him with questions, perhaps the most notable: “Why did you make this game SO addictive?”

Steve’s passion for math education, powered by his entrepreneurial drive, resulted in over 1.7M kids playing his TiViTz math and strategy games, and through their play, learning to “speak” math…the language of all things STEM. Steve believed “all kids can enjoy math and not see it as a torturous subject they HAVE to learn. Motivation is key. It’s the healthy competition of TiViTz–bragging rights and simple prizes–that motivates kids the most.” Steve’s mottos were his SAS Games’ taglines: “Improve Your Game, Improve Your MindⓇ!” and “Do the Math, Rule the FutureⓇ!” Please visit www.tivitz.com to see Steve’s achievements over the last many years.

None of his many business endeavors ever compared in Steve’s mind to the birth of his daughter Aislin. Steve was fiercely protective, committed, and loyal to his cherished family; and Aislin was his shining star to nurture and love. Aislin inherited a carpe diem philosophy and the gift of storytelling from her father. And like both her parents, she is fluent in the language of math. Steve’s joy in Aislin’s pursuit of a Mechanical Engineering degree was visible in the wide dimpled grin on his face and the twinkle of pride in his eye. But perhaps Steve’s greatest gift to Aislin was the courage and confidence to pursue life’s adventures: embracing and reveling in all life has to offer, no matter how small, and facing the challenges, no matter how large. For Steve, life was in the journeying, the adventure.

Steve leaves behind a lot of people who love him dearly. He is lovingly mourned by his wife, Siobhan Marie Mullen of Melbourne, FL, his daughter Aislin Mullen Scully of Melbourne, FL; siblings: Charlotte Scully Williams of Central, LA, Cheryl Scully McCain (Ronnie McCain) of Canton, GA, Jan Scully McCrory (John Glynn McCrory) of Denham Springs, LA, Tricia Scully Flaherty (Tommy Beckman) of Red Oak, TX, Susan Scully of Baton Rouge, LA; father-in-law George Henry Mullen of Wellsboro, PA; Siblings-in-law: Brigid Ann Mullen of Wellsboro, PA, Caitlin Patrice Mullen (Stevie Coons) of Marion Station, MD, Michael Padraic Mullen (Sherri Sabino) of Melbourne, FL, Deirdre Mullen Heck (James Heck) of Chelmsford, MA, and 14 nieces and nephews (9 spouses), and 20 grandnieces and grandnephews. Steve had a special relationship with every single niece and nephew, as well as with the older grandnieces/nephews…and he was working on getting to know the younger ones.

Steve joins in memory his parents Marion Janet Tisdell Scully, John Edwin Richard Scully, Jr; siblings: John Edwin Richard Scully, III, Mark Carlton Scully; mother-in-law Virginia Oshier Mullen; brothers-in-law: Kevin Penton and James Williams.

While much of Steve’s life was shaped by his entrepreneurial pursuits and his love of family, he was known to those around him as an enthusiastic storyteller who thoroughly enjoyed boisterously spinning a good yarn about the zany happenings in his life or the lives of his family and friends. And while he enjoyed being the center of the storytelling attention, he also reveled in sitting back and listening. Steve spent a good amount of time listening to the entrepreneurial dreams and aspirations of the youth in his life, always quick to support and offer suggestions to encourage them to flourish in their chosen endeavor. At weddings and other large events, Steve was often found with the elders of a group listening to their stories and asking questions about their lives. A life-long student of American History, fascinated by the alignment of events and by the characters of the founders that led to the formation of the United States of America, Steve considered his conversations with the elders in his life an honored opportunity to engage in living history.

Stephen (Steve) Patrick Scully: A wonderful and loving Husband, Father, Son, Brother, Cousin, Uncle, In-Law, and Friend…

For Celebration of Life Please RSVP to siobhanmullen33@aol.com or 310-600-8405

Hotel Suggestion – Candlewood Suites Melbourne/Viera IHG Hotel - 2930 Pineda Plaza Way (for closer to Sunset Café, select a Cocoa Beach hotel)

Please wear tropical attire (Tommy Bahama style or Hawaiian shirt with flip-flops) in honor of Steve and bring your best Steve story.

If you would like to share pictures of Steve, please email to siobhanmullen33@aol.com

If you would like to leave a comment for Steve’s story below, please do so!

Steve was passionate about education, particularly math. In lieu of flowers, please donate to a “make math fun” foundation called MathCounts, a complementary program and an engaging one for kids like TiViTz. In the future, a math scholarship will be established in Steve’s name at a local high school in Florida. Click the “Give Today” button at https://www.mathcounts.org and donate in memory of “Steve Scully (creator of TiViTz)”