Public service is still a close second to family for Richard Sullivan '81

The Springfield Republican profiles Rick Sullivan ’81, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, an agency with 1,200 employees and a $100 million operating budget. As reporter Cynthia Simison writes, “His job isn’t just parks, beaches and forests. Along with 500 miles of roadways in Boston and 2,900 dams across the state, it’s overseeing issuing permits for the drilling of wells. It’s Wachusett and Quabbin reservoirs; it’s 36 swimming pools and, yes, two state-owned golf courses.” Still, family comes first for Sullivan, a notion Simison illlustrates by telling how his cell phone rings while he’s driving to town forum. Caller ID tells Sullivan that it’s his dad. “He calls every night at 6:20, just to find out where I am and how my day has been,” says Rick, whose father is Richard K. Sullivan Sr. ’57 and mother Edith Lysaght Sullivan ’56. (View Text)