Baldwin native McNulty's storied legal career leads to Grove City post

August was a homecoming for Paul McNulty.

The Baldwin native's 30-year legal career in Washington included stints as prosecutor in the nation's highest-profile terrorism cases, director of communications and chief counsel for House Republicans in the Bill Clinton impeachment, a controversial stretch as deputy attorney general in the Bush administration and a partner in one of the nation's largest law firms.

He arrived in Western Pennsylvania on Aug. 18 to start life as president of Grove City College.

Grove City, a private, Christian college in a town of the same name an hour north of Pittsburgh, serves about 2,500 students. Its quiet, park-like campus, where students are required to attend chapel 16 times a semester, is a world away from the nation's capital, where McNulty was sworn in as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia three days after 9/11. He later led the prosecution of 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and American Taliban John Walker Lindh.

“I think those moments were being used to shape me and mold me and make me more dependent on God's grace and ready for a moment like this,” McNulty said as he looked out across the campus from his new office last week.

McNulty, 56, is the third Washington insider to exit the beltway for a Western Pennsylvania college presidency in the past 14 months. Former National Science Foundation Director Subra Suresh came to Carnegie Mellon University last year, and former National Institutes of Standards and Technology Director Patrick Gallagher became chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh on Aug. 1.

For the past seven years, McNulty traveled the globe for Baker & Mc-Kenzie, one of the nation's largest law firms. The 1980 Grove City graduate, who joined the college's board of trustees in 2004, said he began to think seriously about returning to Western Pennsylvania last year when then-Grove City President Richard Jewell announced his retirement.

“Anyone I talked to immediately confirmed the idea and said it would be a good fit. People on the board of trustees would ask if I was interested or say ‘I hope you're interested,' ” McNulty said.

Grove City trustee David Rathburn, who chaired the presidential search committee, said he worked on student government at Grove City with McNulty three decades earlier when they were students and watched his career in Washington with interest.

Although several people nominated McNulty, Rathburn said trustees took their time. They vetted nearly 80 candidates, including sitting college presidents, in an eight-month search led by executive search firm Carter Baldwin.

“We are blessed to have someone of his skill at leading large, complex organizations and who shares a passion for Christian higher education,” Rathburn said, adding that the board was unanimous in its selection.

McNulty likened his new job to his work as U.S. Attorney, where he supervised 150 lawyers and a staff of about 350.

“That's about the same size as the staff here,” he said. “What's on my mind the most as I start here is enriching and enhancing the experience of the students here at the college and taking us to even a higher level in terms of the content and substance of the educational experience.”

McNulty's connections to Grove City run deep. He'd never heard of the school when a cross-country coach encouraged him to come for a visit.

He met his wife, Upper St. Clair native Brenda Millican McNulty, when the two were students there. The couple married at the college in 1981 and sent two of their three daughters there.

“I got a call the other day from Dr. (Charles) MacKenzie, who was president when I was here. He was 90 years old last week. He just called to say hello and that he was praying for me. And I looked out at the chapel where he married my wife and me in 1981, and the whole thing was like some kind of movie,” McNulty said.

“Grove City has a very special place in my heart,” Brenda McNulty said.

She's reacquainting herself with the campus as the couple settles into the college guest house, where they will live until painters finish work at the president's house and they complete their move.

The McNultys lost their son, Joseph, 26, to cancer in 2012 while he was attending law school.

“I think, after that, I have a greater affection for folks at this stage in their life. I consider it a privilege to just be able to talk to them and engage with them. When you go through something like that, you don't take a young person for granted,” McNulty said.

Debra Erdley is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 412-320-7996 or derdley@tribweb.com.