[Ct-nfb] interesting article from New Britain Herald Newspaper

[Nathanael T. Wales]

Noreen,

What a great article.  Thank you for sharing!

Does anyone on this list know of this gentlemen's background other than 
about his involvement with the Lions?  This would be a great article for the 
fall/winter "Federationist" and may be a great article to pass on to the 
Braille Monitor as well.

Nathanael


-----Original Message----- 
From: noreen at youcandoastronomy.com
Sent: Wednesday, May 15, 2013 7:46 PM
To: ct-nfb at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Ct-nfb] interesting article from New Britain Herald Newspaper

There was an interesting article in the New Britain Herald newspaper last
Sunday about a blind reporter.I emailed the editor so see if he could send
me an electronic version of the story that I could share. I've pasted the
story to this posting. (see below)

- Noreen Grice


With the help of a Seeing Eye Dog,
a blind reporter saw more than most


Everybody who walked into Arthur Sullivan’s well-appointed and
immaculately kept home office on Richard Street got the same joyful
greeting: a big grin, invariably followed by the line, “Say, you’re
looking good.” The typical response was a hearty laugh. Sullivan, one of
the state’s best-known citizens of his day, was totally blind and
everybody knew it.
That however did not keep him from succeeding in a profession where keen
powers of observation are not merely an asset, but a requirement. He was a
newspaper reporter and a good one.
The longtime city resident covered the New Britain-Bristol area for the
Bridgeport Herald for many years.
He also wrote an often humorous and sometimes absolutely hilarious weekly
column titled, “As seen by a Blind Man.” Obviously, Sullivan did not take
himself too seriously, but the opposite is true of his job.
Early in his career, he hired a young man to accompany him on his
newsgathering rounds. But he soon discovered that folks were often
reticent to talk freely with a third person present.
That pretty much convinced him to spend a month at the Seeing Eye Inc. in
Morristown, N.J., where he was trained to work with a guide dog.
Although he did confess to some ambivalence about the partnership, he
managed to overcome his fear that even a highly trained guide dog might do
the natural thing and chase a cat once in a while, making him the
“unwilling middleman in a scrap.” He stayed for the training and came home
to New Britain with a canine “assistant.”
“Boda,” his first Seeing Eye Dog, became almost as well known around
Central Connecticut as Sullivan himself. And his sources had no problem
telling him everything he needed to know with the big German Shepard
present.
When “Boda” passed away in 1943, “Sully,” as he was known to hundreds of
friends and admirers across the state, went back to New Jersey and
acquired “Trumbull,” a boxer who was the constant companion of the
reporter and his wife Agnes (Wall) Sullivan, who was blind since birth.
The writer himself lost his sight at the age of 23. While he was away, he
wrote to at least a couple of friends here saying, “My trainer tells me
‘Trumbull’ looks like me — broad chest, heavy jowls, big smile and all
that. Just remember when you see us; I shall be the one with the hat.”
Another close “friend” was the portable Braille writer given to him by the
New Britain Lions Club.
The device, which he carried in a holster over his shoulder, allowed him
to take notes quickly and simply, as any other reporter would with pencil
and paper.
Largely self-educated, but unquestionably very bright, Sullivan
successfully held down an office job at the Stanley Works in the
pre-Depression era and ran his own newsstand on Main Street before
convincing the editors at the Bridgeport Herald in 1928 that a blind
reporter could do just as good a job of covering the news as a sighted
one.
Although he is believed to have left school after finishing the eighth
grade, he was said to have been extremely well-versed in history, politics
and obviously in current events.
Shortly after losing his vision, he enlisted a small army of friends who
read to him extensively from books, magazines and newspapers every day. He
also kept abreast of the news and built a vast store of knowledge through
radio.
“Sully” was a longtime member of St. Mary’s Church and the New Britain
Press Club as a well as an honorary member of the American Newspaper
Guild. He was just 56 years old when he died here in 1951.
This article was originally published April 24, 2011. The late Bart Fisher
was a columnist for the Herald as well as its longtime sports editor.




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