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John “Jack” Sullivan, a veteran civic activist whose work helped protect Alexandria’s parks, trees and waterways, died Aug. 16 at age 90.
Over decades of public service, Sullivan influenced issues ranging from government transparency to sewage pollution in the Potomac River. He received the Ellen Pickering Environmental Excellence Award in 2022 and was named a Living Legend of Alexandria in 2023.
Born John H. Sullivan on May 25, 1935, in Toledo, Ohio, he credited his father, a dentist active in their middle-class neighborhood, with inspiring his commitment to community service.
“My father was very much a civic activist,” Sullivan said in a 2023 interview. “I was paying attention to him and what he was doing. I learned from him the difference that one can make in a community.”
Sullivan attended parochial schools and served in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and Ohio Air National Guard from 1959 to 1965. He began his career in 1959 as a reporter for the Springfield Ohio Sun and the then-Milwaukee Sentinel.
After moving to Washington in 1961, he worked as an aide to Wisconsin Rep. Clement J. Zablocki. He became a staff consultant for the House Foreign Affairs Committee in 1969 and was named the committee’s deputy chief of staff in 1976.
During the 1970s, Sullivan led House staff work involving SALT I arms-control legislation, economic assistance to wartime Vietnam, implementation of the Sinai Accords and passage of the War Powers Act.
He joined the U.S. delegation to the United Nations General Assembly in 1973 and traveled to China in 1976 with the first congressional staff group to visit the country.
The incoming Carter administration selected Sullivan in 1977 to manage the transition at the U.S. Agency for International Development. He later led the agency’s Bureau for Asia and the Pacific. USAID presented him with its Superior Honor Award in 1978 for leadership in equal opportunity and affirmative action, including his appointment of women and minorities to executive roles.
After leaving the Carter administration, Sullivan became a consultant, giving him more time to concentrate on civic issues in Alexandria.
“Jack Sullivan provided so many Alexandrians with an example of what it means to be a civic activist,” Seminary Hill resident Carter Flemming said. “He was someone who was involved in such an incredible range of issues throughout his life.”
A wide civic legacy
Sullivan served on 11 boards and commissions. As chair of the Cable Television Commission, he expanded public-affairs programming to include significant municipal proceedings such as Planning Commission meetings, helping make city government more accessible.
He served on the HIV-AIDS Taskforce in the 1980s and chaired the committee that selected Alexandria’s first poet laureate in 2007.
Sullivan also volunteered as a curator and cataloguer of artifacts at the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum. For the Alexandria Library, he helped catalogue and transcribe a Civil War diary.
A longtime Seminary Hill Association board member, he served twice as president and spent many years as treasurer. He was also a member and co-chair of the Alexandria Federation of Civic Associations.
“Those of us in Seminary Hill were so lucky to call him one of our own, but his concern for all in our city extended far beyond our civic association boundaries,” Flemming said.
Parks and a cleaner Potomac
Among Sullivan’s defining environmental achievements were his roles in establishing Boothe and Brenman parks and expanding Alexandria’s Combined Sewer Outfalls project.
From 1988 through 1995, he served on the Citizen Advisory Group overseeing the conversion of Cameron Station. As city officials planned more than 1,000 homes for the property, Sullivan and Col. Ben Brenman pressed for open space to serve its future residents. Their efforts secured changes to the original plan that led to the creation of both parks.
Sullivan joined the Combined Sewer System Stakeholder Advisory Group II in 2017 as Alexandria considered how to comply with a state mandate to stop sewage overflows from polluting the Potomac River during rainstorms.
The original mandate called for Alexandria to address three of its four outfalls, a plan the advisory group endorsed. Sullivan filed a minority report arguing that the fourth outfall at Oronoco Bay should also be included because it was the city’s largest source of river pollution. Sewage had been entering the Potomac through the system for more than a century.
His report drew the attention of Virginia state Sen. Scott Surovell, who took the issue to the General Assembly. State lawmakers ultimately passed legislation requiring Alexandria to repair all four outfalls by 2025.
Sullivan held bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism from Marquette University and a doctorate in international relations and political science from American University. American University honored him with its Distinguished Alumni Award in 1976 and again in 1979.
He is survived by his wife, Paula; their sons, John and Brian; and one granddaughter. He was an active member of Our Lady Queen of Peace Church in Arlington. Funeral arrangements were pending.
“Jack was never afraid to take a stand on an issue when he felt the city could or should do better,” Flemming said. “His courage to stand up and speak up will remain a lasting legacy for those of us who were privileged to work with him.”