Long-time North Shore resident Daniel E. Sullivan passed away on February 3 in Sarasota Florida aged 96. Dan was born in Columbus Ohio in 1921 to Daniel E. Sullivan Sr. and Ann Riley Sullivan. In 1927 the family moved to the Wilmette area where Dan attended Joseph Sears Elementary School St. Francis Xavier Catholic School and New Trier High School (Class of 1940).
At New Trier he lettered in touch football and track participating at the state level in the pole vault and high jump. Dan joined the Army in 1943 and was a member of the Army’s 877th Airborne Aviation Engineer Battalion (Glider Division). With the 877th he was deployed through France and Germany constructing and maintaining the airstrips that enabled Allied aircraft to access the front lines of battle.
After the war Dan moved back to Wilmette and after attending the University of Illinois began a long career in construction engineering. In 1954 he married Helen Stripe of Ontonagon Michigan and they soon moved to Northfield to start a family. Dan was a family man and supporter of youth causes; he was active in the Northfield Little League and the Boy Scouts of America (Troop 5 Wilmette).
He was a member of the New Trier Township Republican Club and as a Precinct Captain worked tirelessly for the elections of U.S. Presidents Eisenhower Nixon and Reagan as well as U.S. Congressmen and State Representatives. His career as an Architectural Superintendent involved the building many of the iconic skyscrapers of Chicago. These include Lake Point Tower and Illinois Centre as well as the renovation of Holy Name Cathedral and the creation of Chicago’s modern infrastructure as well as numerous tollway and water treatment facility projects.
A lifelong learner Dan spent his retirement years researching his genealogy and created a timeline of relatives extending back to American Revolution and beyond to the English Middle Ages. His greatest passion in life was that of being a father. He was preceded in death by his sister Betty Sullivan Wieder and brother-in-law Ernest C. Wieder of Wilmette.
He is survived by his ex-wife Helen Murray of Ontonagon Michigan; son Daniel Sullivan of Atlanta Georgia; son Patrick (Martha Easton) Sullivan of Princeton New Jersey; daughter Marni (Patrick) McCranie of Sarasota Florida; daughter Catherine Sullivan of Chicago; along with six grandchildren and three great grandchildren. A Mass of Christian Burial will be Celebrated on Friday, July 9th at 11 a.m. at the Holy Family Catholic Church in Ontonagon Michigan. Burial will take place in the Holy Family Cemetery in Ontonagon.
Donations in lieu of flowers can be made to the Fund for New Trier (newtrierfoundation.org/fund-for-nt/).
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