Stephen Sullivan, 86, Led Manhattan College
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Stephen Sullivan, who died Tuesday at 86, oversaw the transformation of Manhattan College into a fully coeducational institution during a dozen years as the college’s president, starting in 1975.
Under his leadership, the college constructed a new athletic facility, Draddy Gymnasium, which at the time featured the largest indoor track in New York City. He also introduced programs in robotics and computer science, and opened a center for peace studies, of the first of its kind in the nation.
Born Jeremiah Thomas Sullivan in Boston, Mass., on June 25, 1920, Sullivan entered the Brothers of the Christian Schools, the Roman Catholic teaching order, in 1938 and was given the religious name Brother Casimir Stephen.
After teaching classics and theology at De La Salle College in Washington, D.C., he was appointed assistant professor of theology at Manhattan College in 1959. In 1975, he was named the college’s 17th president.
After leaving Manhattan College, Brother Sullivan served as director of development for the New York Province of the Christian Brothers.
He is survived by his sister, Sr. Margaret de Sales Sullivan.
