This story appears in the June issue of The GēDUNK , Grove City College's award-winning alumni magazine
Grove City College President Paul J. McNulty ’80 smiled, then bowed his head and covered his brow as the song began. A moment later he raised his eyes toward the performers, face flushed with emotion, and basked in the music and the affection that filled the country club ballroom.
Paul and First Lady Brenda (Millican ’80) McNulty, with daughter Anni nearby, sat back and listened as Dr. Jeff Tedford ’00, chair of the Department of Music, and his wife Sasha Piastro-Tedford played a beautiful and moving rendition of “Speak O Lord.” The Getty hymn had been a favorite of the McNultys’ son Joe, who they lost to cancer at age 26, and its theme of hearing God’s call and faithfully following it resonated with the crowd gathered for a reception honoring McNulty’s pending retirement as the College’s ninth president. More than a few tears were shed by students, alumni, faculty, retirees, trustees, and friends in attendance. When he spoke from the heart a few minutes later, they gave him a standing ovation.
It was a powerful moment that demonstrated not only how beloved Paul and Brenda are to the College community but also what a profound impact McNulty has had on the College over the past 11 years. It signaled not an end, but the beginning of a new phase of a relationship that McNulty has had with the College since it changed his life nearly 50 years ago.
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“I was probably as impacted in the direction of my life as any student has ever been coming through Grove City College,” McNulty said. “That light went on for me as a freshman in a very big way.”
McNulty arrived on campus in the fall of 1976, a student from Whitehall, Pa., with an interest in public service inspired by reading biographies of great Americans. “I had no idea what kind of impact coming to GCC would have on me. I was just a kid from a working class neighborhood who only came here because I was recruited to run cross-country and track.”
It didn’t take long for McNulty to find out. In his first semester he took the required class Religious and Philosophical Dimensions of Life with Dr. Andrew Hoffecker. Hoffecker was one of the architects of the Keystone Curriculum, the earliest version of the College’s Humanities Core, and he was on the leading edge of then-President Charles MacKenzie’s effort to revive the Christian character of the College and raise the academic bar.
“I took this class from a man who said things I’d never heard before, and the way he said them was just so impactful. And by end of the first semester, even before the end of first semester, I was a new guy. I was thinking in news ways. I developed a Christian worldview. I was seeing the world in a new way.”
McNulty was very active in campus life, what we would call today a Groverachiever. Amid the “silly and practical” things like playing Gollum in a production of The Hobbit and going to class, McNulty said he was always “looking for every interesting moment and conversation I could find related to these bigger questions about purpose and mission.” He gained a fuller understanding of what it means to be a Christian and how to live faithfully.
By the time he graduated with a degree in History and a fiancée named Brenda, McNulty was forged by faith and primed for achievement. “I had this worldview, and I was ready to conquer the world with this holy optimism that Grove City College has the capacity to instill in students in a very special way.”
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Thirty-odd years later, McNulty was in a different place. He had, in a way, conquered a world.
After graduation, he earned a degree from Capitol University Law School and got a job with the U.S. House of Representatives. He and Brenda built a family – daughters Katy ’07, Anni, and Corrie ’14 and son Joe – and his career in Washington progressed. Determined to be a Christian lawyer in the secular world of government, McNulty’s ethics and skills earned the respect of both sides the aisle. He helped found Faith and Law, an initiative for Christians on Capitol Hill. Over three decades in D.C., McNulty played a key role in the House’s impeachment of President Bill Clinton, was part of the Justice Department’s response to 9/11 as the United States Attorney in Virginia, and served as Deputy U.S. Attorney General under President George W. Bush before leaving public service for private practice and leading the compliance and investigations division of Baker McKenzie, a global law firm.
Joe’s death in 2012 was a pivotal moment for the family. McNulty has spoken often of that hard loss and how his son’s faith only grew stronger as the cancer spread. In the wake of the tragedy, McNulty began to assess where he was professionally. He was in his mid-50s and at the zenith of his legal career, but he was open to “a new and exciting calling that would stretch me and provide an opportunity to grow in new ways.”
And, just as it had in 1976, Grove City College provided McNulty with another transformational opportunity. He had stayed connected to the College over the years and with mentors like Hoffecker, Ross Foster, John Sparks, and MacKenzie. He spoke on campus often, taught classes, was presented an honorary doctorate after delivering the Commencement address in 2007, earned the Jack Kennedy Memorial Alumni Achievement Award in 1998, and joined the College’s Board of Trustees in 2004.
In the fall of 2013, while McNulty was still managing the blow to his family, Grove City College was looking for a new president. The idea appealed to McNulty and he and Brenda considered making a “fresh start” back at their alma mater. “I thought it would be really rewarding and go right to the core of how I’m wired – what I care about most, which is my faith – so that was dominant in my thinking,” McNulty said. Joe was also on his mind.
“I thought, isn’t this interesting that just as I lose my son, here’s an opportunity to go to a campus that has 2,000 kids who are pretty much his age. I saw how courageous my son was. I saw how strong his faith was, and I knew it would be a really wonderful privilege to be able to work with college-age students and equip them for their lives. The idea of that calling seemed really appealing and right for us at that time of our lives,” he said.
“I had this sense that the College was sitting in a position, had a historic opportunity, to really strengthen its Christian identity, to put more emphasis on what it means to be a Christ-centered school. I also know it would be helpful, as the culture was becoming more polarized, for Grove City College to stand out and be more distinctive within the large crowd of liberal arts colleges.”
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Over the course of his presidency, McNulty demonstrated energetic, initiative-driven, winsome, and Christ-centered leadership as the College faced expected and unexpected challenges and explored new opportunities in an era of uncertainty in higher education, society, and culture. He revised the College’s vision and mission statements and codified five values that undergird its work: faithfulness, excellence, community, stewardship, and independence.
Asked about his legacy, McNulty said he sees it in three very broad categories. “The first would be strengthening the College’s Christian identity. We’ve emphasized what it means to be authentically Christ-centered. If I only had one sentence on my tombstone, I’ll take that one,” he said. “Second, I’d love to be remembered as someone who loved the students well … I was looking forward to student relationships, but I didn’t appreciate how much that would occupy my time and be as fulfilling as it has been. When I realized how much it mattered to them, it really mattered to me. And thirdly, I hope I’ll be remembered as being very proactive in the life of the community. I’d like to be remembered as someone who was energetic, who tried to do things new and bring about excellence, generally, on the campus, and that in 11 years we changed a lot of things for the better.”
The changes were many and wide-ranging and they speak to McNulty’s vision of the College and his priorities as president.
The College’s Christian identity is paramount in that vision and over the course of his presidency, McNulty instituted or oversaw several major initiatives on that front. The biggest change was to the decades-old Tuesday-Thursday chapel program. Under a renamed and revised Office of Christian Formation, the program now features a single, longer Wednesday morning service that is more worship oriented with support from a trained music team. Five-week long programs – Fivers – of Bible study and reflection led by faculty and staff, and Faith for Life lectures complete the program, which is intended to immerse students more deeply and intellectually in their faith.
The Center for Rural Ministry, a campus-based resource center, service-learning hub, and catalyst for student-faculty research to benefit pastors, congregations, and communities in the region and the nation was established under McNulty’s watch, as was the Center for Faith & Public Life. Launched with the help of former Vice President Mike Pence, who taught a class with McNulty, the Center aims to study and advocate for Christian values in the public square.
At the core of the College’s mission, academics, new programs were introduced to meet the needs of students and society across the humanities and sciences including the expansion of online offerings, creation of graduate programs, and the establishment of two new schools. The Charles Jr. and Betty Johnson School of Nursing was created in 2019 to revive nursing education in an innovative partnership with Butler County Community College, and the Winklevoss School of Business was established in 2022 to provide a more focused structure for some of the College’s strongest programs. In addition to adding Pence to the faculty, McNulty also helped bring in several other key hires, including bestselling thought leader Carl R. Trueman.
Other academic highlights of the McNulty era include the promotion of the first emeriti faculty members, upgrades to Hoyt Hall, and the biggest building project – and largest investment in STEM education – in College history. Though he won’t be in office when the ribbon is cut on the Smith Hall of Science and Technology this fall, his leadership was critical to the nearly completed renovation and expansion of the former Rockwell Hall. The $50 million Impact 150 project retains the iconic 90-year-old building’s exterior while upgrading just about everything inside so students can learn in a contemporary space that is more like the workplaces of the future than a relic of the past.
It’s a larger-scale version of the Henry Buhl Library renovation that McNulty spearheaded in 2022 that brought the campus touchpoint into the 21st century while retaining its classical exterior. Early in his administration, McNulty saw an opportunity to turn the library, which hadn’t changed much since it was built in 1954, into “the coolest place on campus.” Students now gather to study, collaborate, and hang out together in the space, which features a coffee shop and the latest technology.
Another McNulty student life initiative was the drive to bring Chick-fil-A to the Breen Student Union in 2023. The fast-food franchise is the highest profile change to campus dining during the McNulty era but not the only one. Partnering with dining contractor Parkhurst, the College’s dining halls have been restructured, with new food choices and expanded hours.
Part of the effort to enhance the campus’ quality of life has been aesthetic. Grove City College’s already beautiful campus got a little bit prettier over the last decade thanks to the First Lady’s interest in plants and gardening and the president’s interest in details, including landscaping efforts across campus and in the Chapel Garden, a porch on the student union, banners and murals, the College’s name added to the retaining wall overlooking the steps to Rainbow Bridge, and the Grove sign on the Quad, which was a gift from the class of 2022.
Athletics, which wasn’t on McNulty’s radar when he took office, has become one of the clearest pieces of his legacy. He recognized early on the importance that varsity sports could have in building community and the College’s brand. “I love sports, but didn’t realize how much time I would put into that and how much reward I would get out of it. I wanted GCC to be seen as the top Christian college in athletics in the United States,” he said. Investment in athletic personnel and infrastructure, inspired coaching, and aggressive recruitment have resulted in a record number of student-athletes and unprecedented success in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference and NCAA competition.
The 180-degree turnaround during McNulty’s tenure of the Wolverine football program, which didn’t win a single game in 2014, 2015, and 2016, will go down in history. By 2023, the team recorded an undefeated regular season and made it to the second round of the national Division III playoffs. They returned in 2024. A game ball given to him by the team is one of his prized possessions.
“I see athletics as a way of demonstrating a Christian identity and culture in a rather clear way, if you do it right,” he said. “If a team is all in on our mission, then athletics has a unique ability to strengthen the mission. It’s all about self-sacrifice, discipline, collaboration, and support for each other. It’s about love. Our athletes are learning about self-control, how to be intentional, and to pursue excellence.. And that’s what the Christian life is all about.”
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The toughest parts of leading Grove City College, McNulty said, have been managing the financial well-being of the institution, including enrollment which is critical for a tuition-dependent school, and weathering pressure from sometimes vicious online critics. “It’s a challenge trying to manage the work that we do here, to protect the work that we do here in the midst of a more polarized culture. What I like least about the job are the occasional harsh and unfair attacks of good people in the campus community,” he said.
Those barbs increased around the Covid 19 pandemic and allegations of mission drift and “wokeness” raised by online petitioners that attacked McNulty personally. A report in response from the College’s Board of Trustees affirmed the College had not fundamentally changed and vindicated McNulty’s leadership. “It was a hard time. It was a time when I had to really lean heavily on my faith and trust in the Lord’s care for me. Of course, God’s providence played out over time in a good way … We got a lot of support on campus and on the Board,” he said.
Leading the College through the pandemic was operationally the biggest challenge of his presidency and also drew criticism. Like the rest of the world, the College shut down in the spring of 2020, reluctantly. McNulty wanted to keep the campus open, but the potential strain of 2,300 students on a small, locked-down community like Grove City made it impossible. While other schools went fully remote or started online in the fall of 2020, the College welcomed a new class of freshman and was fully in person. McNulty organized a response to the challenges of that season – masking, testing, quarantines, meal deliveries (often from the First Lady), and the well-being of students – that allowed the College to operate as close to normal as possible.
“Covid was a time when we were trying to serve the community the best we could. I was getting a lot of heat from parents on both sides. ‘You need to do more.’ ‘You’re doing too much.’ I felt I could answer both sides rationally and when I took the time to answer, parents on both sides responded pretty positively,” he said. “We were pressing to be normal more than others. We did a good job of trying to not let the Covid fear deprive our students of the best experience possible.”
McNulty said he won’t miss the experience each May of wondering if enough 18-year-olds will decide to enroll to cover the budget, but he leaves the College in the best position it has been in in years to sway those decisions. Record fundraising during his tenure, including the completion of one capital campaign and the beginning of another, has significantly grown the College’s endowment and more than doubled the funding available to offer more need- and merit- based aid to attract prospective students.
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As he prepares to leave Grove City College again, McNulty considered how the institution has changed over the last five decades and where he fits into that history. In the 1970s, he was in the vanguard of a new kind of student shaped by the efforts of MacKenzie and others to create an intentionally Christ-centered curriculum and campus environment.
“I was in that first wave of grads entering the world with a renewed sense of purpose about what it means to live for Christ with a biblical worldview. I was blessed to have the opportunity to put that into action, and then to be brought back as the first president from that historic era,” McNulty said.
Serving as president of his alma mater was a “special and fulfilling” privilege McNulty said. It was just as transformational as his experience as a student, but, he said, “It’s different when the light is turning on rather than already being on.”
Today’s students, he said, are more prepared for what the College has to offer and more aware, thanks to recent marketing efforts, of Grove City’s brand and programs. “For kids like me, it was a bigger discovery,” he said. “When I was a student there was a lot of space on this campus where you didn’t have to deal with life’s biggest questions. You could just have some fun and get your degree,” he said. Five decades later, that’s no longer the case. The seeds sown by MacKenzie in McNulty’s undergrad years, tended by presidents and trustees since, have borne fruit across campus over the decades. McNulty’s hope, as he hands the responsibility over to his successor, Bradley J. Lingo ’00, is that he’s done his part to advance the College’s mission.
“I hope the College is a place where authentic faith is observable in every classroom and dorm, and every stage and sports venue. We want our witness to be winsome, lived out in a loving, caring way and building community, having fun, but tying it all together because of what we believe,” McNulty said.
That positive vision reflects the “holy optimism” that Grove City College bred in McNulty. It’s one of a dozen qualities that made him an effective leader, a caring mentor, and beloved friend to many in the College community. It’s what brought an overflow crowd to the retirement reception and moved so many in the crowd as that song played. Only God knows what was going through McNulty’s mind as he listened, but it is likely that as the emotion overwhelmed him, he leaned into his faith and God’s providence, as he has throughout his life.
Paul McNulty was transformed by what he experienced at Grove City College. His life of service, to the College and to the public, is due in no small part to what he learned here, who he learned from, and what he learned: To ask God to “Speak O Lord,” receive the truth, and heed the call.