John L. McNulty, 68, passed away in Tulsa, OK on October 31, 2023. He was born in Bartlesville, OK on January 25, 1955 to Joseph Patrick McNulty and Patricia Anne (Johnson) McNulty.

John grew up in Dewey, OK and graduated Valedictorian from Dewey High School in 1973. He graduated from The University of Oklahoma in 1977 with a bachelor's degree in finance and accounting and completed his MBA at OU by 1980. He entered the business world, worked at a large accounting firm and after several years became dissatisfied.

John was drawn to the study of human behavior and personality and had the good fortune to come under the mentorship of Al Harkness at The University of Tulsa. In 1995 he graduated TU with a PhD in clinical psychology. After completing his internship at the Minneapolis VA, he took a post-doc position at Kent State University where he co-authored a book on the interpretation of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory - 2nd Edition, the most widely used personality assessment instrument in the world.

In 1999 John joined the faculty at the University of Tulsa and mentored numerous undergraduate and graduate students and served as chair of the psychology department. He served on the University of Minnesota Press's Advisory Board and was President of The Society for Personality Assessment receiving the 2003 SPA Samuel J. and Anne G. Beck Award for outstanding early career research in the field of personality assessment. He retired from The University of Tulsa in 2020.

John was passionate about his volunteer service to the Commemorative Air Force organization serving as finance director for The Spirit of Tulsa Squadron. Their mission was to honor those who served in WWII by restoring and preserving WWII-era combat aircraft flown by all military services of the United States.

He was preceded in death by his parents and younger brother, Timothy McNulty.

John is survived by his sister, Molly Chitwood (Tom Chitwood); and cousin, Leigh Zachary Rorschach (Tom Rorschach and their son Daniel) all of Tulsa; and cousin, Jeffrey D. Allen (and daughters Ashton and Alexis) of Bartlesville.

There will be a Celebration of Life, 11am, Tuesday, November 14, 2023 at The University of Tulsa in Sharp Chapel. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to "The John McNulty Memorial Fund for Psychology" c/o The University of Tulsa, 800 S. Tucker Drive, Westby Hall, Tulsa, OK 74104."


WHAT WILL MATTER
Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end.
There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days.
Your wealth, fame and power will shrivel to irrelevance.
Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear. So too, your hopes, ambitions, plans and to-do lists will expire.
The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.
It will not matter where you came from or what side of the tracks you lived on at the end.
It will not matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant. Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.
What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built; not what you got, but what you gave.
What will matter is not your success, but your significance.
What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others.
What will matter is not your competence, but your character. What will matter is for what you will be remembered.
Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident.
It's not a matter of circumstance but of choice.
Choose to live a life that matters.
Michael Josephson