Godspeed, Ray McNulty
- Vero Minute
- 7 hours ago
- 2 min read
We couldn’t let this week’s Vero Minute pass without honoring Ray McNulty, who passed away on February 18.
An award winning and celebrated journalist, yes, but his real genius was in those opinion pieces that landed like news.
His “My Vero” columns had the snap and certainty of a straight report, sourced, detailed, full of who said what and who did what, and then, before you knew it, you were deep inside his very specific take on what it all meant. When Ray weighed in, it felt definitive, even when you were yelling back at the page.
His column was the reason you grabbed 32963 and stayed with his story to the end. You knew there would be that twist, that one quote from someone who really should have known better, that line you were going to repeat later. He turned agendas, memos, Three Corners, sheriff’s races, and school board messes from background noise into our business. Very important business.
He was fierce and fearless with his opinions. He picked a lane and drove it hard. But he also did the homework, which made it infuriatingly impossible to dismiss him as just a opinion writer.
And he pissed people off. Regularly. Spectacularly. He relished that, maybe not out of mean-spiritedness, but because he understood friction as proof of contact. Whether you agreed with him or not, and perhaps especially if you didn’t, he got us talking. You argued with his columns in your head, at the kitchen table, and with friends and neighbors until his next column published.
That may be the biggest hole he leaves. Without that weekly jolt, it would be very easy for Vero to drift back into polite, low volume disagreement. He was the lightning rod that took the hits and turned them into our energy source. His voice, that mix of breezy and brutal, is inimitable, and for this town, he is irreplaceable.
There will be other writers and other opinions, but no one can portray exactly like Ray, with that cadence, that wicked blend of reporting, the wink and nod attitude that was his and his alone.
But if Vero keeps arguing, questioning, emailing, showing up, and refusing to let the important stuff slide by unnoticed, then because of him this town won't so easily sleep through its own story.
Read 32963's front page tribute here.