Robert "Blake" Blakely McNulty, Jr.

Robert Blakely McNulty, Jr. (“Blake”) died in his home on the evening of September 2, 2026. Born on June 21, 1937 in Columbia, South Carolina, he was the eldest son of May Mildred Mann and Robert Blakely McNulty, Sr.  Blake grew up with his brother, Morse Mann McNulty, and sister, Ann Easman-McNulty, surrounded by beloved cousins, relatives, and close family friends who lived nearby. For several years, the family moved among states including Illinois, California, and Washington as his father’s military medical assignments changed.

            Throughout his life, Blake was full of contrasts: shy yet outgoing, mischievous yet conscientious, intellectual yet down-to-earth, and at times stubborn yet compassionate. Growing up in a difficult home marked by alcoholism, he found refuge in friendships and activities beyond the family circle. He remained devoted to many of those friendships, regularly attending high school reunions and visiting old friends and cousins throughout his life. Fun-loving and often irreverent, he was known and loved by friends, old and new, for his warmth, wit, playfulness and outrageous sense of humor.

Blake loved retelling stories from his adventurous youth, including travelling cross-country hitchhiking and hopping a freight train with a friend. While working as a linen boy at a resort in Estes Park, he met Marie-Claude Depraz, a young French Fulbright student. She later remembered Blake reading on the floor among rolled-up sheets while she made beds at the lodge where they both worked as well as the romantic nights they spent on the rooftop. 

After exchanging letters across the Atlantic, Blake surprised Marie-Claude with a visit to France. Together, they toured the chateaux of the Loire Valley by Vespa and enjoyed a semi-secret romance on the French Riviera. Although Marie-Claude’s family opposed the match, the couple persevered. In late 1962, she accepted Blake’s invitation to spend Christmas with his family and on New Year’s Eve, they became engaged in the McNulty china closet. They married in Columbia on May 15, 1963, and spent a joyful honeymoon at Pawleys Island.

Throughout their 60 years together, the couple shared a love for the arts, good conversation, other cultures, and of course, travel. They also shared a passion for good food and international cuisine, which they regularly shared with friends and family inside and outside of the home.  

Although Blake began his studies in pre-med attempting to follow his father’s path, he soon turned toward his own passion: American history. After marrying, the two pursued their graduate studies together, first at the University of South Carolina and later at the University of Wisconsin.  When Blake got a position teaching American History at a two-year extension school in Waukesha, Wisconsin, they laid down roots and began their family.  

Blake participated in Lamaze classes to support his wife in natural childbirth.  He was a playful father to his three young children, Christopher, Patrick and Laura, who enjoyed crawling on top of him when he played “bull” on the living room floor or when he sat on the stairs and told magical bedtime stories of NouNou – the friendly bear with the red truck.  Having greatly enjoyed his time as a youth at Sky Valley Pioneer Camp in North Carolina, Blake also shared his love of the outdoors with his family, taking them camping, hiking, fishing and most importantly, teaching them how to ride the ocean waves at Pawleys Island, South Carolina, where he grew up going with his family.  Blake continued to enjoy annual summer vacations at Pawleys with his children and grandchildren until the final summer of his life. 

            Blake was a devoted historian and professor whose specialties included the American Civil War and the Vietnam War. He brought nuance to the social and political understanding of these conflicts and their effects on human lives. A passionate lecturer and storyteller, he prepared carefully and took meticulous notes; long after retirement, he could often be found with a book and highlighter in hand. He also cared deeply about his students, many of them balancing work and family, and made time to listen to their stories and struggles. Blake spent his entire teaching career at UWW, where he formed many friendships and became a dedicated member of the badminton club. 

After retiring, he and Marie-Claude traveled widely to Asia, South America, Africa, and Europe, often by bicycle. He delighted in learning about the places they visited and took countless photographs, which he shared with friends in carefully assembled slide shows. Retirement also brought a new passion for scuba diving; he made many trips to the Caribbean and logged more than 700 dives. When he and Marie-Claude were not traveling, the two volunteered as counselors for a local crisis hotline and social service agency as well as the Milwaukee Art Museum and became increasingly involved in presidential campaign efforts.  

It was important to Blake to allow his children to form their own life paths, just as he had, and he was accepting and supportive as they navigated many changes in careers, partners and locations over the years.  He always welcomed new friends and partners to family meals and vacations, and embraced his new daughters-in-law, Kimberly Sotelo and Anne Rosow, with open arms. Known as Babbaboo or Big B, Blake also delighted in visits with his three grandchildren, Violet, Asha and George.

One of Blake’s greatest triumphs was getting sober at age 75 after a long struggle with alcoholism.  With the support of his family, weekly AA meetings and his AA friends, he found his way to maintaining sobriety throughout his remaining 14 years.  

In 2018, Blake and Marie-Claude moved to Park Springs, a vibrant retirement community just outside of Atlanta, GA, where their daughter, Laura, was living.  Blake was a very active member of this community, participating in several groups such as the weekly political discussion group, history group, water volleyball, the Green Team, and Bridge, as well as enjoying regular outings to the symphony, theatre, and cinema.  Blake abruptly lost his darling wife of 60 years in 2023.  Despite this great loss and increasing struggles with mobility, chronic pain and breathing, he continued to stay social and active, devoting himself to preparing and offering presentations on his travels, history lectures, an exhibit of his ongoing photography, and of course, his daily email distribution of carefully selected news articles.  In his late years, Blake often marveled that he was still alive, far outliving all his family members and many of his friends. In his final year of life, he could be found on many Saturday mornings on the side of the road protesting with a large group of fellow retirees.  Blake often expressed his enthusiasm for these final years at Park Springs and his many friends there, saying that he’d never been happier.  Blake died on September 2, 2026 in his home office in the same spot, around the same time of day and on the same day of the week as his darling wife, Marie-Claude.

A Celebration of Life Service for Blake will be held on November 7th at 1pm in the Community Room at Park Springs (500 Springhouse Circle, Stone Mountain, GA 30087).  Friends and family will be able to attend in person or via Zoom. In lieu of flowers, memorials can be offered to the Park Springs Foundation which offers financial assistance to Park Springs employees and their families (https://parkspringsfoundation.org/).