“It’s good to have it behind us and not play the market with the so-called dynamite,” Tully said then. “The organization will go back to the basics, and we will once again be very profitable.”

One month later, Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America announced its takeover of Merrill Lynch, which became the bank’s wealth-management division.

Along with John L. Steffens, a former Merrill Lynch vice chairman, and Winthrop H. Smith Jr., a former head of Merrill’s international brokerage whose father was a firm co-founder, Tully wrote a column in April 2009 for the Charlotte Observer newspaper taking an optimistic view of Merrill Lynch’s future as part of Bank of America.

Merger Optimism

“Two great leaders are poised to become a powerhouse, the number one financial franchise in the world,” the Merrill Lynch veterans wrote. “So, let the critics carp. We will survive stronger and better positioned to profit globally. We are bullish on this merger.”

Smith, who wrote “Catching Lightning in a Bottle,” a book on Merrill Lynch’s history, said today of Tully, “He was probably the most principled leader I have ever known, and he instilled that in the firm. He was tough and courageous, but he also had a soul. He was kind, empathetic, and always asked about your family.”

Daniel Patrick Tully was born Jan. 2, 1932, and grew up in Jackson Heights, in the New York City borough of Queens. An early job was as copy boy for the New York Daily News.

“When I was growing up, everyone in my family was a steam fitter, which was a blue-collar, union job,” he wrote in a contribution for “My One Big Break,” a 2004 book. “So my parents were shocked when I said I wanted to attend college instead of continuing that tradition.”

Tully graduated from St. John’s University in Queens in 1953 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. After serving in the U.S. Army, he landed a job in 1955 as a junior accountant at the partnership then called Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Beane.

“I didn’t know what the company did, and neither did anybody in my family,” he said.