“Dan Sullivan was a man of great faith and great intellect,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham.

“He was the embodiment of the Jesuit ideal, expressing his faith through scientific research and teaching. He was also a man of great practical wisdom and a warm and thoughtful colleague. Today the Fordham family mourns with Dan’s friends and loved ones. He will be sorely missed.”

A native of Rosedale, Queens, Father Sullivan joined the ROTC as an undergraduate, and was one of the founders of the Fordham company of the Pershing Rifles Military Society. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force Reserves in 1950. He entered into the Society of Jesus three months after his graduation in 1950; he was ordained in Innsbruck, Austria, in 1961 and pronounced his final vows in 1979 at Rose Hill.

Pairing Faith and Science

From the very beginning, Father Sullivan seamlessly paired a love of science with his religious calling. As a seminarian, he earned a master’s degree in biology at Fordham in 1958 before heading to the State University of Innsbruck in Austria for five years of studies under the tutelage of esteemed theologians Karl Rahner, S.J., and Josef Jungmann, S.J.

Before he returned to New York, Father Sullivan earned a doctorate of philosophy in entomology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1969. There, he trained in the science of biological control, in which beneficial insects are enlisted to attack and control insect pests that destroy agricultural crops. He joined the Fordham faculty that year as an assistant professor, then went on to become a full professor in 1984.

Among the major works he published were “Aphids” in Encyclopedia of Entomology (Kluwer Academic Publishing, 2004), “Influence of Host Plant Resistance on Activity and Abundance of Natural Enemies” in Biological Control of Insects (Phoenix Publishing, 2003), and “Hyperparasitism” in Encyclopedia of Insects (Academic Press/Elsevier Science, 2003).

Father Sullivan lent a great deal of his talents to helping the international scientific community. In 1984, he traveled to Nigeria on a Fulbright fellowship to join a team doing research on the cassava mealybug; in 1988, he was a visiting scientist in at the Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) in Cali, Colombia. He was also the visiting scientist at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in Andhra Pradesh, India, in 1999 and again in 2004. He also had the honor of serving as President of the New York Entomological Society and President of the Fordham Chapter of Sigma Xi -the Scientific Research Honor Society.

In a Fordham News podcast last year, Father Sullivan said his Jesuit superiors actively encouraged him to travel and conduct research.

“Non-Catholics sometimes think there’s a contradiction between belief in God and science. It’s not that way at all. It complements it, in fact. I look back on some of the great scientists. Galileo was a Catholic. And Darwin, although not a Catholic, was a religious man,” he said. “And then of course one of the great geneticists, who started genetics, was Gregor Mendel, who was an Augustinian priest.”

An Invaluable Source of Knowledge

After retiring in 2006, Father Sullivan stayed on the faculty, living at Kohlmann Hall, and advising junior and senior biology students. At that time, he began sharing office space on the fourth floor of Larkin Hall with Craig Frank, Ph.D., a professor of mammalian ecological physiology and biochemistry, who’d joined the faculty in 1994.

Frank said that the letters of recommendation that Father Sullivan wrote enabled countless students to advance to medical school and graduate programs, and noted that many remained in contact with him after graduation.

In the Fordham News podcast, Father Sullivan shared some of the advice he’d dispensed to students over the years.

“I tell my students that the really great scholars in this world are not gonna give you a hard time. It’s the second-raters that do that,” he said.

Frank said that their office hours only overlapped once a week, but they developed a rapport over the years such that, several years ago, someone taped a picture of The Muppets characters Waldorf and Statler on their door. It was a testament to Father Sullivan’s good humor that he let it stay up, Frank said.

Though the biology department existed before Father Sullivan taught there, Frank said his contributions were numerous and influential.

“He was one of the founding fathers of the biology department. He was a very good friend, very pleasant to talk to, and his wit never diminished with age,” he said.

“He was an invaluable source of knowledge, and I viewed him very much as a mentor, even as recently as last week. I would just love sitting in our office during our office hours together, and just talking with him about university life. We didn’t always agree on everything, but it was always a joy talking to him.”

An Unmistakable Fidelity to Fordham

Father Sullivan’s fidelity to the biology department and the University was unmistakable. Every year, the annual newsletter detailing recent events of the department had his byline on it. This year, he penned the paper Historical Profile of the Biology Faculty: Past and Present. He also delivered the invocation and benediction at Fordham’s ROTC’s commissioning ceremony each May. Captain Dan Millican, executive officer and assistant professor of military science in the ROTC program, noted that Father Sullivan attended a 70th anniversary celebration of the Pershing Rifles just two weeks ago at West Point.

“He was a great supporter, and a great influence among the cadets,” he said.

“He could always drive the tone of the room to be more productive, and drive cadets toward service.”

In 2009, Fordham honored Father Sullivan with a Bene Merenti Medal for 40 years of service, citing his career as one that “reflects Ignatius Loyola’s international vision for Jesuits.” Jason Munshi-South, Ph.D., an associate professor of biological sciences, said he was the most dedicated attendee at the department’s annual colloquium.

“I can’t imagine these seminars without his presence near the front every week. He was always able to make a personal connection with the seminar speaker given his varied travels around the world as a Jesuit and biologist,” he said.

Patricio Meneses, Ph.D., the chair of the biology department, echoed the sentiment.

“Father Sullivan made me and every new faculty member feel at home from the first day,” he said.

“He was a true scholar, a great colleague, and a great friend.”

A wake for Father Sullivan will be held Monday, Nov. 25, from 3 to 5 p.m. and 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Murray-Weigel Hall Chapel, Rose Hill Campus.

A Mass of Christian Burial will take place Tuesday, Nov. 26, at 11:30 a.m. at the Murray-Weigel Hall Chapel, Rose Hill Campus.

Notes of condolence may be sent to a cousin, Kevin Giuliano, 67 Sandburg Place, Pine Bush, NY  12566.

Fordham News caught up with Father Sullivan for a podcast from his Jesuit residence on the Rose Hill campus. He touched on the ways his faith complemented his research, what it takes to make it in science today, and the importance of setting and sticking to the right priorities.

He also had a bit of advice for graduates about the people they’ll meet along their way.

“I tell my students that really great scholars in this world are not going to give you a hard time. It’s the second raters that do that,” he said.

Father Sullivan: Not all things when you go out there are important, so you’ve got to prioritize them. Some are important and some are not important, and you’ve got to concentrate on those things that are important.

Patrick Verel: Europe. Africa. South America. Asia. In a career spanning five decades, Father Daniel Sullivan, SJ, professor emeritus of biology, has traveled far and wide. His expertise in invasive species, particularly insects, took him far from his native Rosedale Queens and from the Rose Hill campus, where he first set foot as an undergraduate in 1946. I’m Patrick Verel, and this is Fordham News. On May 19th, the members of the Fordham class of 2018 are going to walk down the middle of Edward’s Parade as part of the university’s 173rd commencement ceremony. What would you say your advice is to graduating seniors?

FS: Have self-confidence in what you have done so far. Your parents have spent their entire lives helping you. You’ve had four years at Fordham. We hope we have taught you something, but the main thing is now that you’re on your own.

PV: Did any of the advice you were given as a student really stick with you through the years?

FS: Well, working hard, because when I was here as an undergraduate in 1946 to 1950, I was a pre-medical student. Then, as now, it’s really a thing that if you don’t get a 3.0 or above, you can forget about medical school. So it was work, work, work hard. I just had to do it.

PV: How did your faith inform your work as a research scientist?

FS: First of all, non-Catholics sometimes think there’s a contradiction between belief in God and science. It’s not that way at all. It complements it, in fact. I look back on some of the great scientists. Galileo was, I presume, a Catholic. And Darwin, although not a Catholic, but he was a religious man. He belonged to a different religion, but not Catholic. And then of course one of the great geneticists, who started genetics, was Fr. Gregor Mendel, who was an Augustinian priest. At any rate, I got my Master’s degree in 1958. Then in the providence of the society, my superiors have been very kind to me. They sent me to Europe for five years. I spent four years in Austria at the State University of Innsbruck, where I took my theology. I was ordained over there. And in those days, they had a phenomenal faculty. It was unbelievable. It was really the golden age at Innsbruck. They had people like Karl Rahner for three years of theology. We had Hugo Rahner, his brother, for history. We had Josef Jungmann for liturgy. It was an incredible, wonderful time.

FS: From there, I went out to the University of California in Berkeley to get my PhD in entomology. They were very good to me. I tell my students that the really great scholars in this world are not gonna give you a hard time. It’s the second raters that do that. I didn’t realize it at first, but Berkeley, at least that area, was the international center for biological control of insect pests. It was a fascinating thing, and that’s what I’ve been into ever since.

PV: What do you think it takes to become a successful scientist today?

FS: Work hard. Initially you’re doing it by yourself. But in science nowadays, there’s always collaboration. You don’t do anything pretty much by yourself once you get a PhD. To get a PhD, yes you have to do it by yourself. You get a lot of help. That’s one of the advantages of having other graduate students in the program. They help you. And that’s very helpful because you’re not gonna be going off on some deep end, some side issue. They keep you on track.

PV: And these are tumultuous times, to say the least. I would imagine that some students might be feeling excited, but also a little queasy today. Do you think they should be nervous?

FS: Sure.

PV: Why?

FS: That’s normal. It’s normal because they’re leaving an area, four years that they knew and had friends and so forth, and now you’re going off on your own for the first time. I would say now what they give at Fordham College was better than what I got when I came here. We had, it was so concentrated in my time on biology and chemistry. And now, they don’t give as much as that, but of course you have much more time to work on social issues, social subjects, sociology. We didn’t have any of that. I think they’ve got a much broader background now. Much broader education to go out into the real world.

FS: One of the things I would tell them, not all things when you go out there are important. So you’ve got to prioritize them. Some are important and some are not important. You’ve got to concentrate on those things that are important. But secondly, even among important things you’ve got to prioritize. Not all important things are equally important.

PV: What’s the most interesting insect that you’ve studied?

FS: Aphids. Aphids are pest insects. They suck the sap out of plants, and that right away removes nutrition from plants. But they’re worldwide pests, mainly because they also transmit viruses to plants. They are very much like mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are really interested in getting your blood, but to prevent your blood from coagulating, they inject their saliva as an anti-coagulant, but as they do this, mosquitoes now, they inject a pathogen. Like, I have malaria. I got malaria the first time I was in India. Once you get malaria, you have it for life. But the aphids are similar, but you have beneficial insects that come along and kill the aphids, either tiny wasps that I work with, but also and rather beneficial insects that eats aphids is lady beetle. You’ve heard about the lady beetle?

PV Oh yeah.

FS: Well you know that the lady part is really the Blessed Mother. It’s a little clearer in German because the word for beetle is kafer, K-A-umlaut-F-E-R. And the word for lady beetle in German is Marie en kafer, Mary’s beetle.

PV I love that you brought up the ladybug and the lady bird, and you made a connection in the German name to it being Mary’s beetle, so you made a connection between the science and your faith. Do you see the actual research that you did on behalf of these, searching for solutions for dealing with invasive species? Was that part of serving God?

FS: My feeling is that just doing science in an atmosphere at Berkeley where most of them were non-Catholics, they know that not all Catholics are bad guys, or at least, sometimes some scientists figure any belief in God is awful. But out there, that never came up in Berkeley. They never asked me anything. Never to embarrass me, either one of the students or graduate students, or coming back as a professor.