George F. Mcnulty

George Frank McNulty was born on June 18, 1945, to Helen Emigh and George McNulty in Palo Alto, California. His father died in a vehicle crash when he was just three years old, so he was raised together with his sister, Carrie, by his single mom in San Jose, CA, with the help of his paternal grandparents whom he remembered fondly. After finishing high school, he was able to obtain a scholarship to attend Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California where he majored in mathematics. He then pursued his Ph. D. at the University of California, Berkeley with fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation and the National Science Foundation. He wrote his dissertation under the tutelage of Alfred Tarski, a noted logician, and mathematician, as his adviser. Before coming to USC, he had post-doctoral positions at the University of Manitoba, UC Berkeley, and Dartmouth College. George served as a faculty member at the University of South Carolina Columbia, Department of Mathematics, from 1975 to 2020 and as Department Chair from 1991 to 1994. Throughout his tenure at USC, he received many honors and awards including a Fullbright-Hays Professorship at the University of the Philippines and Ateneo de Manila University, an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship at the Technische Hochschule in Darmstadt, Germany, and a number of grants from the National Science Foundation. George was named a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society in 2011. He had over 70 publications, the foremost of which are three volumes on Algebras, Lattices, Varieties, published by the American Mathematical Society, which he co-authored with Ralph Freese, Ralph McKenzie, and Walter Taylor. It is obvious that George was dedicated to the furtherance of mathematics but also to helping his students in their pursuit of careers in mathematics and mathematics education. He was an adviser to ten Ph. D. students, seven Master’s degree students, and many undergraduate Honor’s thesis students. He was also involved in an outreach program called Math Teachers Circle for middle school and high school math teachers through a South Carolina Commission on Higher Education grant with other faculty members from USC and Columbia College. He was also involved in a research project with faculty from the Psychology Department at USC. However, it was not all math for George. He loved to read not just math but all kinds of books, and his favorites are science fiction/fantasy books. George was also active in the Filipino-American Association of Greater Columbia since it started in 1991, volunteering in any way he could, even participating in dance performances. He served as treasurer of the association. Above all, George was a great and loving husband and father. He will be greatly missed by his wife of forty-two years, Nieves Austria McNulty, and children, Allison (Isaac) and Michael McNulty. Others surviving are his brother-in-law, Brian Bennert, and nephew, Jason Bennert (Laura), brothers-in-law, Arturo Austria, Ben Austria (Gloria), Rolando Austria (Leilani), sisters-in-law, Susan delaMerced, Mila Austria, Mary Austria (Joe), and several nephews and nieces and their children. He was preceded in death by his parents, his sisters, Louise Rodriguez and Carrie Bennert, his brother-in-law Joe Austria, sister-in-law, Zaida Austria Hertan, and her husband, Donald Hertan. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to an educational institution or charity of your choice. A memorial service for Dr. George McNulty will be held at 2pm, Tuesday, June 27, in the Chapel of Temples-Halloran Funeral Home, with inurnment to follow in Bush River Memorial Gardens Mausoleum. Reverend Dr. Mark Bredholt will be officiating. A reception will follow at the funeral home. For those who are unable to attend Dr. McNulty's service, you can watch the livestream here: https://youtube.com/live/38moMrA04a4