RINGWOOD, N. J. — Funeral services were held earlier this month for Alan Sullivan, OFM, who died Nov. 3 at the age of 82 at Holy Name Friary in Ringwood.
Alan, who ministered during his lifetime as a Navy chaplain and captain, on the pastoral staff of Saint Anthony Shrine in Boston, and as the Province’s vocation director, was moved from the Navy Medical Center in San Diego to Holy Name’s skilled nursing facility in Ringwood when his health declined last month.
A professed friar for 57 years, Alan was born on June 15, 1926, in Brooklyn, N.Y., to the late Peter and Mary Ellen (O’Neill) Sullivan. He was baptized Timothy on July 4, 1926, at Our Lady of Angels Church in Brooklyn. He attended the parish elementary school and St. Michael’s High School in Brooklyn from 1941 to 1943, before enrolling in Cathedral Preparatory Seminary in Brooklyn. In 1945 he was accepted into St. Joseph Seraphic Seminary in Callicoon, N.Y.
He was received into the Order of Friars Minor, Holy Name Province, on Aug. 12, 1950, at St. Bonaventure Friary in Paterson, N.J, receiving the religious name of Alan Peter. He professed first vows there on Aug. 13, 1951, before Mathias Faust, OFM. He went on to study philosophy and theology at St. Stephen Friary in Croghan, N.Y.; St. Anthony Friary in Butler, N.J.; and Holy Name College in Washington, D.C.
He was solemnly professed at Christ the King Seminary, Allegany, N.Y., on Sept. 13, 1954, before Celsus Wheeler, OFM, and was ordained at Mount St. Sepulchre Monastery, Washington, D.C., on June 11, 1956, by Archbishop and later Cardinal Amleto G. Cicognani.
After pastoral studies at St. Anthony Shrine in Boston from 1957 to 1958, Alan went on his first assignment as parochial vicar at St. Joseph Parish in East Rutherford, N.J. On Nov. 6, 1960, he entered the United States Navy as a chaplain, and served until 1988, achieving the rank of captain.
From 1988 to 1992, he served on the pastoral staff of Saintt. Anthony Shrine in Boston. From 1992 to 1996, he was the vocation director for Holy Name Province, based at St. Francis Friary on West 31st Street in New York City. In 1996, he assumed the duties of chaplain at the Navy Medical Center in San Diego. Due to declining health, he was transferred on Oct. 7 to St. Anthony Friary in Butler, N.J., and on Oct. 15, to the Province’s skilled nursing facility, Holy Name Friary, in Ringwood.
Provincial Vicar Dominic Monti, OFM, was principal celebrant at the Nov. 6 Mass of Christian Burial at St. Anthony Church in Butler, N.J., at which former Provincial Minister Anthony Carrozzo, OFM, preached the homily.
Alan is survived by his brother, Michael of Vienna, Va., his brother-in-law, Joseph Carroll, and nephew, Joseph Carroll. His brother, Fr. John J. Sullivan, a priest of the diocese of Brooklyn, predeceased him.
Condolences may be sent to Michael Sullivan, 9823 Spring Ridge Lane, Vienna, Va. 22182.