ROSELLE, NJ — It was a historic announcement from a soft-spoken Roselle Catholic High School math teacher.
Actually, the math teacher’s son, a firefighter, delivered the red-hot, breaking news at Roselle Borough Hall.
As soon as he was promoted and sworn in as fire captain on Wednesday, May 22, Ryan Sullivan thanked family, friends and colleagues in attendance, and broke the news that resonated around Roselle, Union County and the Newark Archdiocese: Dan Sullivan, his father, was retiring from Roselle Catholic High School.
“I had no idea Ryan was going to do that,” said Dan Sullivan, 68. “I really hadn’t told anybody yet – except for our principal and president (Tom Berrios) … I think it was a surprise to all.
“There was really no direct, one reason for retiring now, other than age … I still felt like I could do it and keep going to the classroom, but my age told me it was time.”
So, undefeated Father Time sent another teacher into retirement at the tradition-rich Marist Brothers institution on Raritan Road and Pine Street. On the first day of classes for Roselle Catholic ninth- and 10th-graders on Wednesday, Sept. 4 – for the first time since President Ronald Reagan’s initial administration – Sullivan wasn’t teaching algebra I in room 216, a classroom with clear views of the Marist Brothers residence and the school’s baseball diamond.
As an educator, Sullivan was just as comfortable watching students on the baseball diamond – Egan Field at Alumni Park, Coach Hagan Court in The Lions’ Den, home to Roselle Catholic’s basketball and volleyball teams, and Chakey Field, where the soccer teams play on a grass field, at the Bobby Hoffman Championship Track at the Gagliano Athletic Complex, as he was teaching students addition, subtraction, multiplication and division in room 216.
Sullivan was involved in many, many aspects of the RC community, including transportation coordinator and student council moderator. He likely was a part of more dances in the gym – including the student council’s semi-formal and the annual St. Patrick’s Day dance for adults – than anyone in school history.
“He was supportive of every student in the school and Danny was there for every kid, ready to help in any way he could,” said another Roselle Catholic legend, Pat Hagan, who retired in 2015, after 40 years at the school.
Hagan, who worked with Sullivan for nearly 35 years – and resides just a few blocks from him and the school – coached Roselle Catholic’s varsity boys’ basketball team for 27 seasons and won nearly 350 games.
“How many dances did Danny organize?” Hagan asked. “How many DJs did he hire? How many times did he drive an RC bus? How many decorations did he help hang? The list goes on and on. There are no standing ovations and no won-loss records for what Danny did for so many years, but everything he did – with his work ethic – was to make Roselle Catholic a better school and community.”
The Roselle Catholic community will have an opportunity to applaud Dan Sullivan at a well-deserved celebration of his 43-year Roselle Catholic career on Saturday, Oct. 12, at 5 p.m., at Roselle Catholic High School, 350 Raritan Road, Roselle. Friends, family, alums and colleagues, past and present, are expected to gather to toast the RC legend. Tickets are priced at $50 and information is available at the school’s website.
In addition to 43 years in the classroom, Sullivan’s Roselle Catholic resume includes a brief stint as the Lions’ athletic director in the early 1990s. He also operated the scoreboard at basketball games in the 1980s, when the teams sat in the bleachers, hallway side of the gym, opposite of the sideline teams now occupy.
Sullivan graduated from St. Joseph the Carpenter in Roselle, Roselle Catholic – Class of ’74, Union County College and Montclair State University, before teaching mathematics and devoting countless hours to thousands of Roselle Catholic students.
A lifelong Roselle resident, Sullivan grew up on East Fifth Avenue. He currently resides on Grace Street, about a half mile – or four-minute car ride – from Roselle Catholic.
Dan and his wife, Debbie, a Girls Catholic graduate, have been married for 42 years. Both of their sons – Danny, Class of ’06, and Ryan, Class of ’09 – graduated from Roselle Catholic and work for the Roselle Fire Department. On Thursday, Sept. 5, the Sullivan family, with many relatives and friends, celebrated the nuptials between Danny and Maria D’Amico.
For more than four decades, there’s little doubt Sullivan spent nearly as much time at extracurricular activities as he did in the classroom. He bleeds green with his actual family and extended family. As long-time moderator of the junior class and the school’s student council, Sullivan organized and chaperoned hundreds of school dances and proms during his career, always doing his best to ensure a memorable experience for Roselle Catholic students.
“I can clearly remember Dan setting up for dances, especially our junior prom, and how he always put so much effort into transforming the gym and cafeteria to make everything so special for the students,” said Marykate (O’Brien) Vaughn, a 1985 graduate who came across town to Roselle Catholic in September 1983, after Girls Catholic closed its doors.
“Fast forward to years later and going back to RC for St. Patrick’s Day Dances with our families and, again, Dan’s influence was felt making all of those events memorable and fun,” Vaughn said. “Dan was always genuine, approachable and patient. He always cared, which is why it’s so special to be able to celebrate his retirement and thank him for all he’s done for Roselle Catholic and for so many people.”
In an era of political strife across 50 states, Roselle Catholic’s kindly student council moderator could always be counted on to win the popular vote from students and faculty.
“I think what made Mr. Sullivan so popular was how present he was with the students,” said Roselle Catholic Campus Minister Marissa Berrios, Class of ’18. “He always showed up to games, retreats, any and all activities and I think students really appreciated that.
“He always made himself available to them and they got to know him outside the classroom, which I think is really important. Mr. Sullivan always went that extra step as a teacher to be there for his students.”
“Mr. Sullivan was popular because his door was always open, even before and after school,” said left-handed throwing baseball player Danny Keane, Class of ’22. “He got to know all of his students, not only in the classroom, but outside the classroom, too. He would support all of his students in their extra-curricular activities.
“He would come to any baseball game he could for my teammates and I.”
Even a very accomplished math teacher such as Sullivan would find it impossible to accurately count the number of lives he touched and affected in and out of his classroom and around the hallways, hallways he’s always helped decorate with Christmas trimmings and ornaments after Thanksgiving at 350 Raritan Road.
Frank Araneo returned to Raritan Road this school year and is teaching religion to juniors and freshmen in Room 216 at Roselle Catholic, but left a few of the many, many, many math memories around the classroom as an ode to Sullivan.
“I have a message written on the side of the chalkboard in Room 216 that says, ‘Thank you Mr. Sullivan–216–Lions Legend’ with a picture of Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Hagan above it,” said Araneo, a former Roselle Catholic teacher’s aide and baseball coach. “I also have a ruler, protractor and Pythagorean theorem picture displayed above the front chalkboard in honor of Mr. Sullivan.
“I don’t teach math, but honoring those who came before us, particularly those who made an impact that will last forever, is important and essential … Mr. Sullivan is a Mount Rushmore figure at Roselle Catholic. To teach in the same room he did for 43 years is very special.”
The walls in Room 216 have heard countless numbers and word problems the past four decades. Sullivan is an accomplished cook, who often shared recipes with colleagues in the Faculty Room, but he wanted students to understand pi(e) usually meant 3.14 in his classroom.
“Mr. Sullivan would go the extra mile and make sure you understood every topic he taught,” Danny Keane said. “He would make sure to explain every step of a problem and do his best to get every student involved.”
“What I remember as a student was Mr. Sullivan’s comforting presence in the classroom,” Marissa Berrios said. “Whether you were good at math or struggled with it, he always took the time to explain the material and go over extra problems to make sure we understood.”
Dan Sullivan was doing that since the first days he taught algebra I and II and geometry, at his alma mater.
“He was a pro. Mr. Sullivan did an excellent job keeping his cool teaching a difficult subject (algebra I) to our challenging class,” said Rick O’Brien, Class of ’84, a student in Sullivan’s very first year in the classroom. O’Brien, who played baseball and often donned the Lion costume, was student council vice-president his senior year, the first year Roselle Catholic was a co-educational institution.
“We knew we could be a lot to handle at times, but I never witnessed Mr. Sullivan lose his composure,” O’Brien said. “He’s a great man and we’re blessed to know him and have had him as a teacher … Our families grew close over the years and we were together at some family gatherings. To this day, I still call him ‘Mr. Sullivan’ out of respect – no matter how many times he says, ‘Rick, it’s Dan.’”
The Union County Friendly Sons of St. Patrick presented Sullivan with a Distinguished Service Award during its annual dinner at the Grand Summit Hotel in 2017. Sullivan often marched with a contingent of Roselle Catholic students in the Union County St. Patrick’s Day parade.
A kind, humble, gentle man and a gentleman, Sullivan will miss many of the extracurricular activities, but little doubt about what he’ll yearn for the most as he begins retirement.
“I will miss seeing the students and seeing my colleagues,” said Sullivan, who’ll enjoy having more time for gardening. “That’s what I’m going to miss the most … I’ve always thought what was so special about RC was the family atmosphere.”
But even in retirement, Sullivan is expected to remain a member of the Roselle Catholic family and community. Nobody will be surprised to see Sullivan at a game involving the Lions or if – more likely when – he makes the two-hour trip to the Marist Brothers Center at Esopus, N.Y., for a class retreat in the 24-25 school year.
In the spirit of St. Marcellin Champagnat, founder of the Marist Brothers, Sullivan ended his Roselle Catholic career with a prayer. The soft-spoken teacher had never uttered a word from the stage at a Roselle Catholic graduation – until his final commencement as a faculty member on June 1, 2024, when the Class of ’24 received its diplomas.
“I dislike speaking into a microphone, but I’m glad I (said prayer at graduation),” Sullivan said. “It meant a lot, especially the reaction from all the people in the gym.”
Following a standing ovation, Sullivan ended the commencement exercise at the podium, stage right, in front of a microphone. He said:
“And in my final official blessing to the Roselle Catholic community, I share a prayer from the bottom of my heart, a prayer my family has long revered and shares with each other. So, from my traditional Irish family to my Roselle Catholic family:
“May the road rise up to meet you.
“May the wind be always at your back.
“May the sun shine warm upon your face,
“The rains fall soft upon your fields,
“And, until we meet again,
“May God hold you in the palm of his hand.”
“I am very grateful to have had the chance to work with Mr. Sullivan,” Marissa Berrios said. “He has such a love and care for the school; it really was inspiring to see and it helped motivate me in the classroom.”
The Roselle Catholic campus minister said: “It was a blessing to be able to work with Mr. Sullivan.”
Submitted by Joe Skrec.
Photo Courtesy of Joe Skrec