Jerry Sullivan is the father of Jane Sullivan-Davis and Beth Sullivan. He also is the father-in-law of Bo Sullivan-Davis, and the grandfather of Cristina Sullivan-Davis and Sadie McGavran (Sullivan-Davis), all members of Allisonville Christian Church (ACC). On January 9, 2020, Jerry became the great-grandfather of Lily SD McGavran, the daughter of Sadie and her husband, Drew. Jerry and Lucille Sullivan became members at ACC in 2001.
Jerry currently lives at Hooverwood, but previously lived at Robin Run Village in an apartment, a garden home, and then the assisted living unit where Tom Cain’s father John Henry Cain also lived. Jerry, John Henry, and Tom Cain occasionally ate together in the Robin Run dining room.
Jerry attended his undergraduate studies at Bethany College in West Virginia and then had his seminary studies at Yale Divinity School. He met his wife Lucille Gasser Sullivan there. She also studied at Yale Divinity School. Jerry fondly remembers his participation in a select men’s choir at Yale.
Jerry’s ministry spanned 52 years starting with his student minister positions, four congregations in Ohio, and then interim ministries. He served in the cities of Cleveland, Bowling Green, Youngstown, and North Canton. His interim ministries were in North Carolina, where he and Lucille retired, moving to Christmount in Black Mountain in 1994.
In the early 1960’s, while at First Christian in Bowling Green, Ohio, Jerry decided it was important for him to participate in the voter registration campaigns which were taking place across the southern United States. His regional minister, Dr. Harold B. Monroe, agreed to his participation as long as the board at First Christian said he could go (and agreed to bail him out if he were arrested). The board gave Jerry their blessing, and he joined a group of three others, including a rabbi from New York City, to do voter registration in Mississippi. While registering people to vote, the rabbi in their group was severely beaten and all four were followed in their car until they crossed the state line.
Every Sunday morning, Jerry would get up at 5 AM, put on clothes over his pajamas, and go to the church to straighten up the sanctuary, make sure the hymnals were properly placed in the pew holders, and that the thermostat was properly set, and would then practice his sermon to make sure he had his delivery perfected and to make sure his voice was warmed up. He then returned home and put a record on the stereo to play selections of Handel’s Messiah to wake the family to get them ready for church. One Sunday, while speeding home to wake the family, he got pulled over by the police. The officer asked, “Are you wearing your pajamas, Reverend?” After that, Jerry decided he actually should get “dressed” before his 5:00 AM jaunts to the church. On another Sunday, Jerry yawned so much when he got home for breakfast that his jaw locked. He ended up at the ER with a dislocated jaw, instead of in the pulpit at church.
