Father Frederick J. Sullivan

Father Frederick J. Sullivan, pastor emeritus of Our Lady of Loretto parish in Cold Spring and former pastor of two other parishes, died Jan. 31 at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Yonkers. He was 83.

Auxiliary Bishop Dennis J. Sullivan, vicar general, celebrated the Funeral Mass Feb. 5 at Father Sullivan’s boyhood parish church, Immaculate Conception in Tuckahoe. The homilist was Msgr. William V. Reynolds, former pastor of St. Anthony’s parish in Nanuet.

Father Sullivan was assigned to Our Lady of Loretto as parochial vicar in 1993, became pastor in 1994 and served until his retirement in 2001. He was pastor of St. James the Apostle in Carmel, 1980-1992, and of St. Theresa’s in Briarcliff Manor in 1993 before taking a leave of absence because of illness.

Msgr. Reynolds described Father Sullivan as warm, friendly and kind.

“Pastorally, he was wonderful,” he told CNY. Msgr. Reynolds recalled that his own sister, the mother of seven, once went to see Father Sullivan when he was procurator at Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains. Her two youngest children, twin boys, were enrolled at the school, and she told Father Sullivan that she was finding it hard to pay double tuition.

“He could not have been kinder to her,” Msgr. Reynolds said.

He also noted that Father Sullivan “served with distinction” on the archdiocesan Commission for Interparish Financing, of which Msgr. Reynolds also was a member. “He could look at a spread sheet and see where the problem was,” he said.

Msgr. Reynolds remarked that he and Father Sullivan were part of a group that Msgr. Reynolds called “the Tuckahoe Five.” They were five young men from Immaculate Conception parish who lived “within eight houses of each other,” he said, who became priests of the New York Archdiocese within a nine-year period.

The others were Msgr. Reynolds’ brother, Msgr. Joseph F. Reynolds, pastor of St. Anastasia’s in Harriman; Msgr. William J. O’Brien, founder of Daytop Village, the well-known drug rehab program; and the late Father Theodore J. Schulz. All prepared for priesthood at St. Joseph’s Seminary.

“We weren’t following anybody,” Msgr. Reynolds said. “It was all God’s individual grace, moving each of us in our individual tracks.”

Father Sullivan, born in Bronxville, graduated from Fordham Prep and then studied at Cathedral College and St. Joseph’s Seminary. Ordained in 1953, he served for the summer at St. Lawrence O’Toole in Brewster, then was parochial vicar for a year at St. Agnes in Manhattan.

He taught in the Bronx at Cardinal Hayes High School, 1954-1962, and at Cardinal Spellman High School, 1962-1965, where he was assistant administrator, 1965-1970. He was procurator simultaneously of John F. Kennedy Catholic High School in Somers and Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains, 1970-1974, and a faculty member at Kennedy Catholic, 1976-1980. He was procurator of St. Joseph’s Seminary in Dunwoodie, 1974-1976, and served in 1974 as administrator pro-tem of St. Pius X parish in Scarsdale.

Burial was at Holy Mount Cemetery in Eastchester.