Pittsburgh city hall press room renamed after the late Tim McNulty, reporter and Peduto spokesman

The press room in Downtown Pittsburgh’s City-County Building will be renamed in honor of Tim McNulty, a former Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter who later served as a spokesperson for former Mayor Bill Peduto and the Pittsburgh Penguins.

McNulty, of Pittsburgh’s North Side, died in July after battling cancer. He was 54.

After receiving a master’s degree from the New York University School of Journalism in 1994, McNulty worked in the Washington bureau of The New York Times as a research assistant to New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd.

In 1996, he began working at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He reported for the newspaper for 18 years, covering police and later politics.

McNulty left his position as a city hall reporter in 2014 to become Peduto’s director of communications before moving to the Penguins.

His wife, Jennifer McNulty, on Tuesday told TribLive she felt renaming the City-County Building’s press room — formerly Room 458 — was a fitting tribute to someone who spent so much time there.

“That just goes to show how loved and respected he was as a reporter and in his time as [public relations] for the city,” she said.

Crayon pictures that the McNultys’ daughter, Lily, drew about a decade ago still decorate a wall in the press room.

City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved the bill to rename the space the Tim McNulty Press Room.

Councilwoman Theresa Kail-Smith, D-West End, who sponsored the measure, was not present.

“Tim did not like to be the center of attention, but I think he would be pleased to know that the work he did was recognized and that people remember him,” Jennifer McNulty said. “It would mean a lot.”