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

[Deb Reed]

Noreen I really appreciate your finding and sharing this amazing article
with us! Have a wonderful weekend,Deb

On Wed, May 15, 2013 at 11:05 PM, Esther Levegnale <elevegnale at sbcglobal.net
> wrote:

> 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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