The University of Cincinnati has announced a new scholarship, under the College of Engineering and Applied Science, which seeks to honor a dynamic alumnus, the late Harold Richard "Sully" Sullivan. As shared in a statement obtained by UC News, the sprightly nonagenarian remained on the move until his passing in 2013, engaging in activities that ranged from six-mile hikes in the Grand Canyon at age 90 to his routine ambles through Scottsdale, Arizona. Renowned for his tenacity, Sullivan's obituary recounts a lifetime of restless curiosity and practical skill, befitting his mechanical engineering roots, which hails from a Dayton, Ohio, machine shop that his father ran.
Sullivan can be described as a trailblazer, quite literally, and in terms of educational pursuits among his kin. He emerges as the eldest sibling of four, who carved the path as the first college attendee within his family. Taking his strides toward the University of Cincinnati's mechanical engineering program represented a leap from the orbit of familial precedent. "I think engineering was natural for him," Barbara Pringle, his daughter, told UC News. "He was really good at math, liked the precision of engineering, problem-solving and the advancements that could be made in different technologies."
Not only did Sullivan instill a love for engineering and problem-solving, but also a passion for the vast outdoors, an affinity he passed on to his family. As remembered by his progeny, Sullivan's legacy isn't confined to the inventions he wrought or the mechanisms he mastered; it is as expansive and open as the landscapes he traversed and the intellectual boundaries he ventured beyond.
