Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island." The grafts that Dr. Sullivan initially performed at this hospital were the square-shaped "Castroviejo" grafts.
Necrology
15
GARRETT L. SULLIVAN, MD BY C. Stephen Foster, MD
GARRETT SULLIVAN DIED IN DECEMBER 1995.
BORN IN 1909 IN
Cambridge, Massachusetts to a typically Irish-American family, Dr. Sullivan distinguished himself in school and on the athletic fields. He graduated from Boston College in 1930, and from Harvard Medical School in 1934. His medical internship was at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, in Boston, and he began his residency in ophthalmology at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary on December 1, 1936. He was certified by the American Board of Ophthalmology in 1940. He was in the private practice of ophthalmology in Boston, with extensive involvement with duties at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary over his many years of practice. He practiced continuously in Boston, particularly in private office space at the Massachusetts General Hospital, except during a four year interuption, 1942-1946, when he served in the Marine Corps overseas
16
1Necrology
during World War II, being discharged at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Dr. Dunphy, Chief of Ophthalmology, at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, assigned Dr. Sullivan the responsibility of corneal transplants at that hospital as this surgery became an increasingly accepted technique for attempted visual rehabilitation of individuals with comeal pathology. Dr. Sullivan was an especially gifted surgeon, despite his habit of humming a pirate song (Lulu Bellero, I think), a tune from the film adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island." The grafts that Dr. Sullivan initially performed at this hospital were the square-shaped "Castroviejo" grafts. He became director of the Boston Eye Bank in 1948, and remained so until 1960. I feel privileged to have assisted him in the performance of corneal transplantation during my fellowship training at MEEI from 1975-1977. His skills as a surgeon, to my eye, were every bit the marvel that rumor had them to be. Additionally, he was, always, the ultimate gentleman, and "catholic" story teller, both in the operating room and at the cafeteria lunch table. It was with considerable bittersweet emotion that I received from him, at his insistence, the gift of his entire collection of the "Transactions of the American Ophthalmological Society" upon the event of his retirement from active practice in 1993. Those books grace my shelves and remind me, each time I use them, of the individual who gave them to me, the epitome of an American Ophthalmology Society member. Dr. Sullivan is survived by his wife, Rose Marie and his children Jean Pybas, Rosemary Avery and Nancy Brunette. We will miss Dr. Sullivan enormously.
