Built to Last: Tommy Mueller’s 29 Years of Craft and Care

By Klein ISD Jasmine Nguyen

November 5^th, 2025

Klein, Texas—Time and again, we’ve heard folks refer to Klein, Texas, as the biggest small town in Texas. Klein ISD was established in 1938 and now covers 87.5 square miles in Harris County with over 50,000 students, and we’ve even been named Forbes Best-in-State #1 Education Employer. So, you could say this place is far from what one would think a small town looks like, but there is no doubt that it feels like one.

In Klein, we know that it’s our people who make this place feel like home. From the new families who choose to live here to the generations of families who are descendants of the first settlers in this community still living here, so many folks bring value, heart, and tradition to this place.

Klein ISD Crafts Coordinator Tommy Mueller is one of those special people.

“I always knew I was going to be a carpenter,” Tommy said. “My grandfather on my mother's side owned a sawmill. My dad lived here in Klein all his life. He and one of my brothers eventually started a business building houses. As a matter of fact, in 1961, my dad built the 3-bedroom, 1-bathroom house I grew up in. I own the acre it sits on and the acre where my house currently sits.”

As the youngest of seven brothers, Tommy learned early on how to build things, like treehouses, and eagerly soaked in all the knowledge he could about woodworking. All seven brothers have carpentry skills.

Built to Last: Tommy Mueller’s 29 Years of Craft and Care

“When I hired Tommy back in 1995, I knew he came from a family of hard workers and skilled professionals,” Klein ISD Chief of Operations August Wunderlich said. “What I did not realize was just how truly talented he was until he began working with us. His craftsmanship speaks for itself.”

From building custom cabinetry (his favorite woodworking project in Klein ISD) to miles and miles of computer lab desks in the ‘90s and early 2000s, Tommy can pretty much build anything.

“I’ve never been afraid of hard work,” Tommy said. “Things have changed a lot, especially with new technology, but there’s nothing like handmade items. Receiving a piece from someone who took the time to learn a skill and use their hands to create something one-of-a-kind and unique. No piece is ever the same. No machine can make that happen.”

His love for woodworking and his passion for creating new things, coupled with his calm demeanor and friendly smile, make him a standout employee in Klein ISD.

“Tommy is a true artist who shows his creativity and skill through his ability to work with wood. One of his most remarkable contributions is the handcrafted tree displayed in the boardroom,” August Wunderlich said. “Made from numerous exotic woods, this piece represents our school district, with each leaf symbolizing one of our schools. While we certainly miss the days of watching him build extraordinary pieces from wood, his leadership and mentorship have proven invaluable to the employees he now guides.”

These days, Tommy is coordinating and leading others more often than he is actually working with wood. He oversees a team of 29 workers who complete tasks across our school district. In a week, Tommy’s team completes about 400 work orders, and he is proud of the work they do.

“It’s a good feeling being able to teach somebody,” Tommy said. “Most of our crafts guys, we brought from the grounds crew up into the paint department. If they wanted to be in our department, they had to work hard for it. My role is to show them how to do a job, then they have to do it in their own special way within the parameters we’ve already set for the job. It’s nice to see them add their personal touch and see how they incorporate someone else’s vision into their work.”

Tommy finds the work here in Klein ISD keeps him busy, and he enjoys the role he’s taken on.

“You always have something to do here—rain, sleet, or snow. There's no downtime,” Tommy said. “And, the people. People working in Klein ISD take pride in what they do. I’ve been fortunate enough to have great bosses who have believed in me, like August Wunderlich. There’s something special about a place where we build our own employees up and train them in how we do things. It’s not like hiring out a contractor who generally doesn’t care about each job as much. They just put a quick fix on it and go, but in our department? We fix it, and we fix it to last because we know that our schools and buildings are important places for our future generations.”

One school is particularly special to Tommy. Mueller Elementary was built in 2009 and named after one of our founding families: the Mueller family, consisting of a long line of descendants who first settled in Klein, Texas, in the 1800s.

“It was an honor to be able to be there for the construction of Mueller Elementary,” Tommy said. “It was a point of pride for our family. Ms. Firestone, the principal of Mueller when it opened, came to me and asked us to build a tree that she designed for her school. My brother, my sister-in-law, my wife, and I came together to build the one that now hangs inside the school. It was a special project for us.”

Outside of a school being named after his family, Tommy and the rest of the Muellers have always found ways to stay active in the community.

The Mueller Barbecue Benefit has been a barbecue cook-off hosted on one Saturday in April every year for over 35 years. It began with Tommy’s father and uncle hoping to start a tradition that mattered, along with a healthy dose of brotherly competition.

“Every year, it just gets bigger,” Tommy said. “We’ve had up to 84 cooking teams at one time, packed onto two acres of land with two houses and a shop on it. One year, we raised $50,000, and we always give the money we raise to a deserving organization.”

The Mueller Family has donated to local police and fire departments in the past, but has focused its donations on veterans for the past few years. In particular, Patrons and Heroes Outdoors, an organization whose sole focus is “providing outdoor activities for Purple Heart recipients and military servicemen and women with service-related injuries.”

“My brothers and I are all the same. We’re givers,” Tommy said. “We get it from our parents—they always helped people. My mother sewed for people who needed help with their clothes, and my dad taught us the carpentry business through volunteer work. When the weekends came, all of us kids would go and help our neighbors and friends with whatever they needed around their house. We never did it for pay. It was just the neighborly thing to do.”

Tommy’s the kind of neighbor we all hope to have, and the kind of employee we treasure here in Klein ISD. With his retirement coming soon, one might wonder, “What’s next?”

“This place is my home,” Tommy said. “This is where my dad grew up, and it’s where I’m rooted. As far as my land goes, my son’ll have to sell it because I’m not going anywhere. I always said when I retire, I want to build me a chuck wagon, just to have one. So, I think that’s what I’ll do.”

Some people go to work and collect a paycheck, but for Tommy Mueller, his job has been his lifelong passion, and his heart for this work transcends carpentry and woodworking. Tommy has helped build a culture of genuine care, deep commitment, and an undeniable ripple of talent here in Klein ISD. We are so grateful to the staff who work behind the scenes day in and day out, so that our kids in Klein have access to the best possible education.