Jesuit Father Charles Sullivan, Baltimore native and Loyola graduate, dies at 84

Jesuit Father Charles Delano Sullivan, a Baltimore native who taught and coached for nearly 50 years in Bronx, N.Y., died May 13 of Parkinson’s disease. A funeral Mass will be offered May 22, 11 a.m., at Fordham University Church in the Bronx. He was 84.

He was ordained in Baltimore by Cardinal Lawrence Sheehan in 1972. He spent 49 years teaching math and coaching basketball at Fordham Prep. Father Sullivan also was a noted retreat speaker.

The youngest of three children, Father Sullivan grew up just blocks from The Johns Hopkins University in Homewood. He attended what are now Loyola Blakefield High School and Loyola University Maryland.

At the end of his junior year of college in 1960, he joined the Society of Jesus and after two years in the novitiate of St. Isaac Jogues in Wernersville, Pa., he did philosophical studies at Shrub Oak, N.Y. (1963-1965). He earned a master’s degree in math at Boston College and then spent regency teaching math at Georgetown Prep and the lower school in North Bethesda. 

According to a Jesuit obituary, Father Sullivan was a longtime friend of Hall of Fame University of Notre Dame basketball coach Richard “Digger” Phelps, with whom he worked basketball camps for more than 30 years. 

“You will not find a person who represents the values of Fordham Prep, its students, and the Jesuit community better than Charlie,” Phelps said upon Father Sullivan’s induction into the Fordham Prep Hall of Honor in 2011. “His dedication to teaching and serving the young men of Fordham Prep for over 40 years has prepared many academically and spiritually for the years ahead. Add to this his commitment to coaching and impacting young men in the field of athletics and you have a deserving person for this special honor.”

In 2019, declining health forced him to retire. He was diagnosed with Parkinson ’s disease and moved to Campion Center, the Jesuit health care facility in Weston, Mass. 

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