Longtime U.Va. backer Gilbert J. Sullivan dies

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Gilbert J. Sullivan, who headed the University of Virginia's Alumni Association for 35 years, was integral in developing what is now the Virginia Athletics Association, which provides scholarships for athletes.

He oversaw major building expansion and fundraising for the school's Jefferson Scholars program.

Thinking of his accomplishments, Alexander G. Gilliam Jr., secretary to the university's board of visitors, quoted a famous epitaph, "If you seek his monument, look around," and said, "It most certainly applies to Gilly and Alumni Hall." In 1992, a year before he retired, Mr. Sullivan received U.Va.'s Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award for excellence of character and service to the university community.

The 80-year-old Mr. Sullivan, who worked 45 years for the alumni association, died at home Monday after battling ailments for the past 18 months, his wife said.

A memorial service will be held at noon today, Saturday, at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 190 Rugby Road in Charlottesville.

"He had a generous and gentle sense of humor, tremendous resilience as the university grew and changed around him, and a quality of puckishness that made hours spent with him times that I remember with gratitude and pleasure," U.Va. President John T. Casteen III said in a statement.

Mr. Sullivan was the seventh child of a respected shoemaker in Fredericksburg, where his family would charge groceries to an account his father would pay once a month, said his wife, Ann Vernon Harlin Sullivan.

"They never had a great deal," she said. "But they never lacked for anything, either."

And that was something that stuck with her husband as an adult.

"He always saw that I had some money in my pocket," she said. "Even when we didn't have much."

The couple would have celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in August.

A Charlottesville resident since 1949, Mr. Sullivan was a graduate of U.Va., where for a time he played quarterback for the football team. A lifelong fan of high school and college baseball, Mr. Sullivan is also remembered as a skilled card player, with an affection for gin rummy.

"He had a sharp mind," son V.G. Sullivan of Charlottesville said of his father's skill with a deck of cards. "I'm not sure how he did it."

Mr. Sullivan also retired as a major general in the Virginia National Guard and served in the Naval Reserve and Marine Corps Reserve.

In addition to his wife and son, survivors include another son, Michael L. Sullivan of Richmond; two daughters, Sarah Schimmels of Richmond and Susan Finley of Charlottesville; three sisters, Louise Sullivan Ingalls, Shirley Sullivan Chinn and Peggy Sullivan Atkins; and a brother, Jeffrey L. Sullivan, all of Fredericksburg; and nine grandchildren.
Aaron Lee is a staff writer at The Daily Progress in Charlottesville.