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Parsippany School Officials Mourn Death of District's Financial Chief
PARSIPPANY - School Business Administrator Jerry Sullivan, who last week was honored for 25 years of service to the township district, died yesterday morning. He was 51.
Flags flew at half staff at township schools as Sullivan's colleagues remembered him as the district's scrupulously honest and fiercely loyal financial guru.
They also recalled a sense of humor that is not normally associated with number crunchers. Last Thursday, as Sullivan and other employees with a quarter century of tenure were awarded mono-grammed silver boxes, the ever-responsible administrator joked, "Well, I guess tomorrow I'll have to pay for these."
Sullivan, a Hopatcong resident survived by a wife and three children, enlisted in the Marine Corps before earning his bachelor's degree at Fairleigh Dickinson University. He later earned a master's degree and began in Parsippany as a teacher at Troy Hills School, also working at Intervale School.
Some years later he left the classroom to become an administrative assistant in the curriculum depart ment and then assistant to the business administrator, Joseph Windish.
Superintendent Timothy C. Brennan said that four years ago, when the revered Windish retired, "I told the board there was not even a need to do a search because we had the candidate by which all others would be judged sitting in the next office."
Violet Schicke, a 16-year board member, said Sullivan was Windish's protege and the two enjoyed a father-son relationship. "It was beautiful," she said. "Indeed, Joe Windish taught Jerry everything he knows, and Jerry was a good pupil."
Sullivan's untimely death left the district numb. Last night's board meeting was canceled, and board members wondered how they would cope with the loss.
"To think that he won't be at the next board meeting, it just seems incredible," said board President David Shaffer. "Jerry was an integral part of this district. I don't think anybody can imagine the school district running without Jerry right now."
Sullivan's teaching back ground and fiscal acumen gave him the inspiration and ability to comb through a budget for dollars, Brennan said.
"As rock solid as a fiscal manager that he was, his heart was always for the kids and somehow or other he would always find a way to get what we needed for them," Brennan said. "One image I remember was Jerry leaving Friday afternoon with one of those banker's boxes full of work and coming in Monday with that same box."
Though most students did not know Sullivan, they all felt his impact, Assistant Superintendent Gene Vasile said.
"Every child benefited from Jerry's work in the district," Vasile said. "When they went into their classroom and there were supplies in that room, when the payroll went out on time and was accurate, when the board of education needed to find money for projects for kids, it was Jerry who did that. He was one of those people who on one hand was invisible but his contribution was seen and shared by many."
Sullivan's death, said Vasile, "is personally devastating to all of us who worked with Jerry. And the long-term implications for the school district are unfathomable at this time."
Said Shaffer, "I don't think anybody on the board can describe the shock we feel right now."
'His heart was always for the kids.'
Timothy Brennan, Parsippany schools superintendent
by erik engquist
Daily Record April 7, 1998
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