John M. Sullivan

To know Charlie Sullivan was to love Charlie Sullivan. You only needed to toast a Bud Light (in a bottle) or share a bowling lane to feel like you’d known him for ages. He made friends everywhere he went, from Lewis’s to the Elks to local joints in LA or DC or fire stations around the country. He hooked you in with his sharp wit and his charming smile — and the occasional dad joke — before “shooting the shit” for hours.

John “Charlie” Sullivan was born January 16, 1957, the youngest of seven children in a tight-knit Irish Catholic family that split time between Brookline and Marshfield. As a kid, Charlie played nearly every sport and enjoyed his summers at the beach. He joined the Brookline Fire Department in 1986, where he spent the next 32 years. And when not answering calls, he enjoyed reading books outside the fire house, enjoying the weather and offering directions to lost tourists. His firehouse colleagues remained some of his closest friends.

Around that time he met Linda at a friend’s wedding and — instead of watching the 1986 World Series on the small television set he smuggled in — the two spent the night dancing. They later had two sons, Michael and Patrick, and moved to their home in Norwood. Charlie was an enthusiastic sports dad, cheering his boys at all their games and never complaining about 6 a.m. hockey games in Bourne. Charlie took his boys on legendary summer trips to Baltimore for Red Sox games or to New Hampshire with his buddies and their kids. That summer tradition continued for decades, with Charlie and Pat trekking to Florida for spring training and Charlie and Mike visiting civil war battle sites.

Charlie also watched over his many nieces, nephews, second cousins, and friend’s children in highly practical ways. You never had to buy your own AAA membership, smoke detector or tool set. He was the most incredible listener, in no small part because he refused to ever buy a smartphone — and never wasted an opportunity to remind others to put theirs away.

He was a fiercely loyal friend and enjoyed regular dinner dates and weekend trips to the Cape with his long-time girlfriend Jackie, weekly lunches with “the guys”, or traveling to Saratoga, Chicago, or New York on a firefighter-led trip.

Charlie and his siblings remained extremely close. He visited Kathleen (“Kay”), Larry, Denis, Barry, and Joanne in person regularly — regardless of distance — and stayed in regular communication when they were away. He is also predeceased by his older brother, Joe, and by his parents, Jack and Peg. Charlie was a regular at the annual “Sullivan Open” family reunion and golf tournament. He wasn’t usually in the winning foursome but he was the happiest guy there, always arriving early to help set up and staying late to spend time with people he cared about.

Charlie’s most signature trait was his sense of humor. He didn’t take anything in life too seriously and made sure you didn’t either. Christmas presents were often labeled with humorous hints of the present’s contents and birthday cards were always an opportunity for a laugh. At his first Christmas with his daughter-in-law, Sarah, he hid her real gift in a toilet seat box.

In 2023, Charlie became “Papi” to his twin grandsons, Cody and Julian. He adored those boys and visited whenever he could, often with Auntie Joanne or Uncle Pat in tow. He loved reading aloud one of their favorite books, aptly named, “A Firetruck For Chuck,” and could spend all day with the boys on his lap. Cody and Julian both took some of their first steps in his apartment and they will both grow up hearing about how much Papi loved them, and, at least in their toddler years, how cool it was that he drove his own firetruck.

Charlie had the biggest heart and he spent his life making sure the people around him felt loved.

Visiting hours will be held in the Gillooly Funeral Home, 126 Walpole Street (Rt. 1A) NORWOOD on Thursday, August 7th from 4-8PM. Family and friends will gather in the Funeral Home on Friday, August 8th beginning at 9:30 AM, prior to the Funeral Mass which will be celebrated in St. Timothy’s Church, 650 Nichols Street, Norwood at 10:30. Relatives and friends are respectfully invited to attend.

In lieu of flowers, expressions of sympathy may be made in Charlie’s memory to the Wounded Warrior Project (woundedwarriorproject.org) or to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute (danafarber.jimmyfund.org).