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122 Maple Street
Rutherford, NJ.
Crusaders 2, 4; Sodality 1, 2, 3, 4; Petroc 3. 4; Debating 1, 2, 3,
4; Excellence Medal 1; Honor Pin 1, 2, 3: Intramurals 4. |
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Dr. Gregory Sullivan, M.D., FACC, of Edgartown, Mass.,
longtime former resident of Upper Montclair, N.J., born
March 6, 1940, passed away peacefully in his sleep on the
morning of July 26, 2021, at his farm on the Island of
Martha’s Vineyard.
Beloved
husband, father, grandfather, friend, and healer to
thousands over a 53-year medical career, Greg was born to
Frank and Lucy in Jersey City and raised in Rutherford, N.J.
He met Gene Hejke as a child, and they would later go on to
be husband and wife for almost 55 years.
Greg attended St. Peter’s Preparatory School in Jersey City,
graduating in 1958. He then matriculated at Georgetown
University and studied classics as part of the class of
1962, followed by NYU Medical School class of 1966.
As a physician, he specialized in cardiology and was at the
forefront of interventional cardiology in New Jersey for
more than a half century. He was a pioneer of angioplasty,
which revolutionized non-surgical cardiac intervention. He
helped found a major heart surgery center at Passaic General
Hospital, where he became Chairman of Cardiology, and the
Head of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory.
He married in 1966 and began a family immediately. He served
as a Major in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Korea from
1970-1971. Both he and Gene developed passions there that
influenced the rest of their lives – including a love of
travel with friends and period Chinese porcelain – which
ultimately blossomed into The Ivory Bird Antiques on
Bloomfield Ave. in Montclair, a business Gene then operated
with Mary Heyman for 42 years. Upon returning from Korea,
the family settled into their home for the next 47 years in
Upper Montclair.
In the early 1980s, the family’s love affair with Martha’s
Vineyard began, and ultimately Greg and Gene would retire
there, surrounded by their large family. Inspired by their
travels, they created formal gardens at their properties. In
collaboration with their dear friend, the late Michael
Faraca of Avant Gardener, their creations were published in
several Vineyard gardening books. Their compound, Sweetened
Water Farm, with five acres of gardens, remains under
cultivation as a testament to this pursuit of beauty in
nature.
Greg will always be remembered by those who knew him as a
dedicated family man, and a man of great knowledge in a wide
variety of subjects spanning Asian art, science, politics,
biography, religion, history, and vocabulary. Over more than
a decade, he and Gene hosted a monthly great books symposium
with their dear friend, Professor Theo Theoharis of
Cambridge, Mass. He will be remembered most by family and
friends as a man with an extraordinary generosity of spirit.
He is survived by his wife Gene, his children Gregory,
Brendan, Jared, Alexandra, Tara, and Natasha, 15
grandchildren, and many dear friends.
A funeral Mass will be presided over by Monsignor Robert
Sheeran at Saint Elizabeth’s Catholic Church in Edgartown at
11 am on Saturday, August 7, followed by an interment at
Sacred Heart Cemetery in Oak Bluffs, Mass. |