Former UVa alumni head Gilbert Sullivan dies at 80

Gilbert J. Sullivan, who headed the University of Virginia’s Alumni Association for 35 years, has died. He was 80.
Sullivan worked for the Alumni Association for 45 years before retiring in 1993. He was also integral in developing what is now the Virginia Athletics Association, which provides scholarships for athletes, and he oversaw major building expansion and fundraising for the Jefferson Scholars Program.
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, Sullivan received UVa’s Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award for excellence of character and service to the university community.
“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,” UVa President John T. Casteen III said in a statement.
The seventh child of a respected shoemaker, Sullivan came from humble beginnings in Fredericksburg, where his family would charge groceries to an account his father would pay once a month, his wife, A.V. Sullivan, said.
“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, Sullivan was a graduate of UVa, where for a time he played quarterback for the football team. He later served in the Virginia National Guard, retiring as a major general. He also served in the Naval Reserves and Marine Corps Reserves.
A lifelong fan of high school and college baseball, Sullivan is also remembered as a skilled card player, with an affection for gin rummy.

“He had a sharp mind,” son V.G. Sullivan said of his father’s skill with a deck of cards. “I’m not sure how he did it ... if he was counting cards ...”
Sullivan died at home Monday after battling ailments for the last 18 months ago, his wife said.
In addition to his wife, Sullivan is survived by two sons and two daughters.
A memorial service will be held at noon Saturday at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 190 Rugby Road, followed by a reception at 1 p.m. in the Alumni Hall Ballroom.