Daniel Francis Sullivan

Daniel Francis Sullivan passed away peacefully at home on September 13 in West Hartford, surrounded by the family that brought joy to his long and eventful life. Born in New York City in 1931 with a bright shock of red hair, Dan moved as a young man to Parkchester in the Bronx, where he immediately began his working career. At age 9, his father, Daniel F. Sullivan, Sr., saw a sign saying “Boy Wanted” in the window of a camera shop, and brought his young son to the owner. “Here’s your boy,” he said, and promptly left his son to get started. A love of photography never left him. Later Dan worked at a Bronx soda fountain, where a love of making and serving breakfast was also born, and never left him. But it was not photography or breakfast that would define him, rather it was the raven-hair beauty he met at Parkchester’s St. Raymond’s School. Sixth-grader Ruthanne Sullivan would become his friend, then girlfriend and prom date, then wife, and they would be together for the rest of his life. Dan liked to say wooing young Ruthanne was his greatest achievement. Dan resisted his father’s encouragement to join he and Dan’s older brother John on the New York City police force, and with the support of his Irish-born mother, Kathleen Sullivan, and younger sister Katie, looked instead toward a career in business. An accounting degree at Fordham University led Dan to Arthur Anderson, where he fondly remembered being tasked with counting the M&M candies in a factory, and then to Wall Street where he became Comptroller (today’s chief financial officer) and one of the youngest-ever partners at brokerage house Harris Upham & Co. He loved everything about Wall Street, including innumerable friends, dining at the Stock Exchange Lunch Club, the box seats at Yankee, Knick and Ranger games, playing pinochle on the Erie Lackawanna commuter train and much more. He also worked hard, and was a pioneer and industry leader in automating the brokerage industry. Later, as a senior executive at Bunker Ramo Corp. in Trumbull, CT, he was an early leader in information technology, and was instrumental in the development of terminals used by traders around the world to gather data and information on the markets. He closed his career by devising an innovative new investment system for The Hartford Insurance Co. Dan was an enthusiastic sportsman. Although only a middling bowler and golfer, he was an especially skilled fisherman who sought fish everywhere from the Florida Keys to the wilds of Alaska. He was on the board of the Limestone Trout Club in Canaan, CT, where he plied his fly-fishing skill to pull more than his share of big fish out of the ponds. Dan was also a nationally ranked skeet shooter, and at the Remington Arms Gun Club in Stratford, CT, he was famed for the beautiful gun collection he tucked cleverly below a false floor in the trunk of his beloved Lincoln Town Car. Ruthanne and Dan, who married in Parkchester in 1954, lived for many years in Monsey, NY, where Dan was a Trustee of Sacred Heart Church and Grand Knight of the Joyce Kilmer Council of the Knights of Columbus. Later, Ruthanne and Dan moved to Farmington Woods in Avon, CT, where Dan served as president of the Master Association, before moving to The McAuley, their much-loved community in West Hartford. Dan is survived by Ruthanne, his wife of 67 years, daughters Judy Magruder, Joanne Huelsman and her husband Don, and sons Brian Sullivan, his wife Tracie, and Dan Sullivan III and his wife Judy. Ruthanne and Dan have been blessed with 10 grandchildren, many cousins, nieces, and nephews. He will be missed by all. A funeral mass will be held at 10 am, Thursday, September 23, at Saint Peter Claver Catholic Church in West Hartford, CT. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to McAuley Residents Association, 275 Steele Road, West Hartford CT 06117.

Daniel Francis Sullivan

September 13, 2021