Necrology

Eugene Lyons Sullivan '38

Mar. 9, 1916-Sep. 23, 2003

Eugene Lyons Sullivan ’38, for 31 years a field representative and marketing manager for Goodyear International Corp., was born on March 9, 1916, in Seneca Falls, NY. His parents were Eugene L., Sr., a salesman, and Winifred Van Riper Sullivan. Gene Sullivan, also known on College Hill as “Sully,” grew up in Seneca Falls, where he was graduated from Mynderse Academy. He came to the Hill in 1934, joined Theta Delta Chi, and demonstrated his athletic versatility by lettering in three sports, baseball, basketball, and football. Captain of the basketball team in his senior year, and known for his “bon comraderie,” he was elected to Quadrangle, DT, and Was Los, and served on the Executive Council.

Gene Sullivan left the Hill with his B.S. degree in 1938 and later settled in Ohio, where he was employed for a time by the Ohio Finance Co. in Canton. On July 26, 1941, in that city, he was married to Nadyne (Deane) Vail. The following year, Gene Sullivan became a U.S. Navy midshipman. Assigned to Miami-based small craft in the South Atlantic and later minesweepers in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, he had in the meantime obtained an officer’s commission and was discharged as a lieutenant in 1946, after World War II’s end.

Following brief and varied business employment, Gene Sullivan went to work for Goodyear, the tire manufacturers. In 1948, after taking a year of courses at the American Institute for Foreign Trade in Arizona, he became a field representative for Goodyear Tire & Rubber Export Co. During the next 15 years he carried out assignments for the company in Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela. Subsequently working out of Goodyear International Corp.’s headquarters in Akron, he managed tire production services. Appointed manager of tire marketing in 1965, he continued to travel widely throughout the U.S., Europe, and Latin America on the company’s behalf while residing in Canton. He retired in 1979.

Eugene L. Sullivan, a resident of Sarasota, FL, for the past 20 years, and an ever faithful alumnus, died on September 23, 2003. Predeceased by his wife in 2001, he is survived by a son, Timothy V. Sullivan; two twin daughters, Deirdre Bruchey and Maureen Barolet; and three grandchildren.

 

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