SULLIVAN, HELEN - Retired College Teacher - Gladly would she learn, and gladly teach - Helen Roxanna Sullivan, 98, died from pneumonia at Jordan Hospital in Plymouth, Massachusetts on June 1, 2013. Helen was the daughter of the late Rev. Handley C. and Ethel R. (Sabine) Mullen of Easton and Riverdale, Nova Scotia, Canada. Born on December 29, 1914, in Royalton, New Brunswick, Helen lived her early years in New Brunswick including four years on Grand Manan, and in Nova Scotia. Graduating in 1930 from Saint John High School at age 15, she won the governor general’s academic medal for having the highest grades in the school and received a scholarship to the University of New Brunswick. After graduating from UNB in 1935, with first class honors in English, French, and Latin, she taught public school in New Brunswick. During this time she returned to teach on Grand Manan which was always dear to her heart. She moved to Quincy, MA in 1940, taught at Eastern Nazarene College and worked on her master’s degree in education at Boston University. After graduating from B.U. in 1943, she moved to Red Deer, Alberta where she taught at Canadian Nazarene College and married Flight Sergeant Kenneth E. Sullivan of the Royal Canadian Air Force. At the end of WWII they returned to ENC where Helen resumed her teaching and Ken prepared for the clergy. Upon Ken’s graduation in 1948 they moved to Franklin Centre, Quebec, where they established the second Church of the Nazarene in that province. After pastorates in Woodstock, Ontario and Providence, Rhode Island, they again returned to Eastern Nazarene College in 1957 where Ken established the ENC Press, Helen taught French and English, and they raised their family of three boys. She remained in Quincy for fifty-three years, moving in 2004 to Assisted Living at the Fenno House. In 2011 she went to live at the Life Care Center nursing home in Plymouth, MA. Helen was a devoted member of the Wollaston Church of the Nazarene, she volunteered at the public library, and she tutored adult ESL students. Her interests included language study, word games and knitting. She also read widely and traveled to Israel, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Europe. Of all her interests, however, her family was most important to her. She is predeceased by her husband the Rev. Kenneth E. Sullivan and her brother Dr. Wilbur H. Mullen. She is survived by her brothers Vernon and Bernard Mullen of Ottawa, ON; Dr. Laurence Mullen of Houghton, NY; sister Dr. Ethel Forbes of Wood’s Harbour, NS and Fullerton, CA; sons Dr. Arthur Sullivan of Ottawa, ON; Paul Sullivan of Kingston, MA; Dr. Glendon Sullivan of Quispamsis, NB; grandchildren Kenneth Sullivan of Ottawa, ON; James Sullivan of Taunton, MA; Jonathan Sullivan of Montreal, QC; Dr. Karen McManus of Pembroke, MA; great-grandchildren Jonathan and Matthew McManus, and Grace, Sophie, Audrey, Owen, and Mason Sullivan; as well as several beloved nieces and nephews.
A memorial service was held at the Wollaston Church of the Nazarene in Quincy, MA on Saturday, June 29, 2013. A second memorial service will be held at the Beulah Camp Tabernacle in Brown’s Flat, New Brunswick on Monday, August 5, 2013 at 2:00 p.m. The committal service and interment of her ashes will be on Tuesday, August 6, 2013 at 5:00 p.m. in the Havelock, Nova Scotia cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made, payable to Eastern Nazarene College, with a memo designating them for the Rev. Kenneth E. and Helen R. Sullivan Scholarship. Contributions should be sent to the ENC Development Office, 23 East Elm Avenue, Quincy, MA 02170.