GROVE CITY, Pa. – Grove City College will welcome two individuals known for their distinguished public service as the 2007 Baccalaureate and Commencement speakers. But to two Grove City College May graduates, they are simply known as “Dad.”
Hon. Paul J. McNulty ’80 will serve as the Commencement speaker for the 127th ceremony at 10 a.m. May 19 on the Grove City College Quad. An evening earlier, Adm. Alan T. Baker will address approximately 540 graduates at a 7 p.m. Baccalaureate service.
McNulty, a 1980 graduate of Grove City College and the father of ’07 graduate Katy McNulty, a history major from Fairfax Station, Va., was sworn in as deputy attorney general of the United States on March 17, 2006. Prior to his confirmation by the Senate, he served as acting deputy attorney general since November 2005.
McNulty has spent nearly his entire career in public service, with more than two decades of experience in federal and state government. From Sept. 14, 2001, to March 17, 2006, U.S. Attorney McNulty served the Eastern District of Virginia. Under McNulty’s leadership, the U.S. Attorney’s Office grew more than 20 percent. He made the prosecution of terrorism, gun violence, drug trafficking and corporate fraud his top priorities and successfully prosecuted many of the nation’s highest profile cases in the War on Terror, including American Taliban member John Walker Lindh, Sept. 11 terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui and convicted spy Robert Hanssen. He also launched initiatives against gangs, cybercrime and procurement fraud.
Before becoming U.S. attorney, McNulty directed President Bush’s transition team for the Department of Justice and then served as principal associate deputy attorney general. In the prior Bush Administration, McNulty was the Justice Department’s director of policy and chief spokesperson.
McNulty has more than 12 years of experience in the U.S. Congress. He was chief counsel and director of legislative operations for the majority leader in the House of Representatives. He was also chief counsel to the House Subcommittee on Crime, where he served for eight years. During that time, he was principal draftsman of many anti-terrorism, drug control, firearms and anti-fraud statutes.
The Pittsburgh native has played a significant role in shaping criminal justice policy in Virginia. He served then-Gov. George Allen as a primary architect of the Parole Abolition and Sentencing Reform initiative in 1994 and served on the board of the Department of Criminal Justice Services and the advisory committee of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
McNulty grew up in Whitehall, Pa., and graduated from Baldwin High School in 1976 and from the Capital University School of Law in 1983. He married the former Brenda Millican, also a 1980 Grove City College graduate; they have three other children besides Katy: Annie, Joe and Corrie.
Rear Adm. Alan T. Baker, deputy chief of Navy chaplains and 16th chaplain of the United States Marine Corps, is the father of ’07 graduate Rebekah Baker, an English major from Annapolis, Md. He is the first graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and the first former surface warfare officer to serve as a chaplain corps flag officer.
A native of Santa Ana, Calif., Baker graduated with merit from the Naval Academy in 1978 and reported to the USS Brooke for his first sea tour. He returned to the Naval Academy in 1981 as an instructor in the Department of Professional Development. Answering the call to ministry in 1984, Baker transferred to the Naval Reserve while attending seminary.
Graduating from Fuller Theological Seminary with a Master of Divinity degree in 1987, Baker was ordained by the Reformed Church in America and recalled to active duty as a Navy chaplain. His first Chaplain Corps assignment was as a ship’s chaplain of the USS Richmond K. Turner, in which he deployed to the Persian Gulf supporting Operation Earnest Will escorts of reflagged Kuwaiti tankers.
Baker reported for service with the Marines in 1990. During combat operations to liberate Kuwait in the first Gulf War, he provided ministry in the field to the Marines and supporting units of Marine Aircraft Group 11.
In 1992, Baker began three years on staff at the Naval Chaplains School as primary instructor and administrator for the chaplain basic course providing initial training to newly commissioned Navy chaplains. Following a tour as chaplain with the U.S. Coast Guard in New York from 1995-98, Baker was ordered to the staff of the Chief of Navy Chaplains in Washington, D.C., where he served as branch head of Chaplain Corps Professional Development.
In 2001, he reported as command chaplain of the USS Harry S. Truman with additional duties as carrier strike group chaplain in Operation Enduring Freedom. In 2003, Baker assumed duties as senior chaplain corps detailer at the Bureau of Naval Personnel in Millington, Tenn., where he was responsible for worldwide assignments of chaplains throughout the sea services. In 2004, Baker returned to the U.S. Naval Academy as command chaplain, where he was responsible for religious support to the 4,300-member Brigade of Midshipmen as well as management of the Academy’s historic chapels.
Baker earned his Ph.D. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and is a master training specialist as designated by the Navy Chief of Education and Training. He has an additional subspecialty in education and training management. Baker’s personal decorations include the Legion of Merit, three meritorious service medals, four Navy and Marine Corps commendation medals, two Coast Guard commendation medals, and two Navy and Marine Corps achievement medals.
Besides Rebekah, Baker and his wife, Marla, have one other daughter, Hannah.
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