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

[Esther Levegnale]

Hi, Noreen,

Thanks for sharing that article with us.  Mr. Sullivan sounds like a really spunky and feisty guy!

Esther

Sent from Esther's Amazing iPhone!

On May 15, 2013, at 7:46 PM, noreen at youcandoastronomy.com wrote:

> 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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