1965

Francis “Mike” J. Sullivan ’65 was the son of Frank and Kay Sullivan of Concord and sister Patricia and Susan, whom he dearly loved. He grew up in the Bay Area and graduated from Clayton Valley High in Concord. After college at SCU, where he majored in engineering, he continued his studies at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, earning his doctorate in electrical engineering. While there he met his loving wife of 52 years, Romaine Therese Brust. After completing his studies, they settled in Vienna, Virginia, where he began an industrious career at Bolt, Beranek and Newman. Later, he opened a branch of the company in San Diego. In addition to managing the office, he led efforts in target tracking using underwater acoustics, anti-submarine warfare, speech recognition, and digital communication. After his retirement, he continued to work at Lockheed Martin, followed by Viasat, where he was active in communication systems engineering right up to his unforeseen passing. Mike and Romaine were blessed with children Kevin, Kathleen, and Kenneth. Kathleen predeceased her father. Mike was active in the Boy Scouts when his sons were growing up. He was committee chairman of Troop 782 for several years and was one of the leaders on the annual Sierra Trek, which he loved. He supported Ken in soccer, being on the board of the Del Mar Soccer Club, and was an assistant coach. He thoroughly enjoyed cheering Kevin during his football years. He was very proud of Kathleen’s outstanding achievements at University of Pennsylvania, and her charitable activism. He relished life and had a passion for many things. Throughout his teen and young adult years, he enjoyed building amateur radios, talking and signaling with people from around the globe, and enjoyed many field days while at graduate school with the Johns Hopkins Amateur Radio Club. An early computer gamer, he played, cataloged, reviewed, and even wrote mods for the last 40 years. This included playing and testing Zork, DUNGEN, and other early MUDS. He was an enthusiastic gardener with a beautiful rose garden and splendid geraniums everywhere. He had many bird feeders which attracted an amazing number of birds to the garden. He loved all kinds of music, was a voracious reader, and never stopped learning new things to the end of his life. He enjoyed decorating with lights, and his Halloween designs were a favorite in the neighborhood. He was a home environmentalist, and solarized his home in Del Mar, added rain collection barrels, and always made sure that everything recyclable was recycled. He passed away peacefully at home on Nov, 19, 2019, after a brief illness. He will be missed by many, but especially—in addition to his wife Romaine, sisters Sue and Pat, and sons Kevin and Ken—his lovely daughter-in-law Jiyun Byun, who was very close to him, and his granddaughter Lina Kathleen, who was the apple of his eye. 

28 Jan 2020