Daniel P. Tully, who rose through the ranks at Merrill Lynch to steer it through the 1990s, during some of the firm’s best years, died on Tuesday at a daughter’s house in Darien, Conn. He was 84.  His death was confirmed by his son Timothy. No cause was given. Mr. Tully lived in Hobe Sound, Fla.  Mr. Tully had been with Merrill Lynch for almost 40 years when he began his five-year run as chief executive in 1992, the heyday of the so-called Mother Merrill ideal — the view of the firm as an all-embracing club of like-minded bankers and brokers who lived and died for its greater good.  The firm became larger and more profitable under his successor, David H. Komansky, but a feud among a group of top executives eager to succeed Mr. Komansky left it permanently scarred.  The winner of the succession battle, E. Stanley O’Neal, as reserved as Mr. Tully was gregarious, went on to disavow the notion of Mother Merrill publicly, lay off thousands of executives and reinvent Merrill Lynch firm as a leaner, profit-driven version of Goldman Sachs.  While Merrill Lynch reaped some of its largest profits ever, the riskier approach ultimately led to billions of dollars of losses as a result of collapsing subprime mortgages. In the depths of the financial crisis in 2008, Merrill Lynch agreed to be acquired by Bank of America.  Mr. Tully “was a principled leader and a caring human being who made everyone feel welcome in his presence,” said Winthrop H. Smith Jr., who worked closely with Mr. Tully and wrote a self-published book about the firm’s history.  “Wall Street could use a Dan Tully today,” he said.  Daniel Patrick Tully was born on Jan. 2, 1932, and grew up in the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens. He studied accounting at St. John’s University and, after a two-year stint in the Army, began work at Merrill Lynch in 1955 as a back-office trainee.  In those days the path to executive power at the firm started in its many regional brokerage offices. Mr. Tully made his own name in Stamford, Conn., where he became one of the firm’s most productive brokers.  He was soon tapped for management duties in New York. In 1985 he became the president and chief operating officer — the No. 2 executive at Merrill — and effectively ran the firm under the chairman and chief executive, William A. Schreyer. Succeeding Mr. Schreyer in 1992, he was named chairman the next year.  While sharp with numbers, he was less so with names and took to calling just about everyone outside of his immediate family “pal.” He embraced his hardscrabble upbringing and his Irish roots, installing a Kelly green carpet in his office, scribbling notes with a felt pen of the same color and jumping at any opportunity to belt out “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling.”  He would conclude internal memorandums with the signoff “73s,” which, in the day when interoffice communications went through the telegraph wire, was code for a job well done.  Merrill thrived under his watch, expanding its global footprint, increasing its commitment to investment banking and cementing its position as the country’s most dominant retail broker.  There were setbacks, however. The largest was in 1994, when Orange County, Calif., which Merrill had been advising, filed for bankruptcy because of faulty interest rate trades. The county sued Merrill, contending that it had provided reckless investment advice. The suit was settled for $437 million.  Mr. Tully retired in 1997 at the age of 65, following the tradition of Merrill executives.  According to Mr. Smith’s book, “Catching Lightning in a Bottle” (2013), Mr. Tully was skeptical from the start about Mr. O’Neal’s abilities as chief executive when he was named to succeed Mr. Komansky.  But it was Mr. O’Neal’s public insistence that the days of Mother Merrill were over that troubled Mr. Tully the most.  He was particularly irate at what he considered Mr. O’Neal’s reluctance to sufficiently support an investment banker named Daniel Bayly, who was charged by federal prosecutors over a dubious banking deal done with Enron. (The charges were later dropped.)  “I don’t know Stan that well; he never reported to me,” Mr. Tully said in a 2005 interview with The New York Times. “But there has to be an understanding that Mother Merrill stands for the good things in life. You take care of your fellow employees. I think Stan believes in Mother Merrill. If he does not believe in it, shame on him.”  In 2008, Mr. Tully helped found Fieldpoint Private Bank and Trust, which manages money for wealthy individuals.  In addition to his son Timothy, Mr. Tully is survived by his wife of 59 years, Grace; another son, Daniel; two daughters, Eileen Ceglarski and Elizabeth Berry; and 13 grandchildren. Mr. Tully was visiting Ms. Ceglarski when he died.
Mr. Tully, who stepped down in 1997, was a staunch believer in “Mother Merrill,” an ideal of devotion to the greater good of the firm.