Sister Eileen Sullivan, president of Xavier University Preparatory School, dies at 65
08-28-2010 Times Picayune
Submitted by N.O.V.A.


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Sister Eileen Sullivan, who for the past seven years served a second term as president of Xavier University
Preparatory School in New Orleans, died Aug. 8 at the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament Motherhouse in
Bensalem, Pa., where she had been receiving treatment for a brain tumor. She was 65.

Sister Eileen won the gratitude of hundreds of New Orleans schoolchildren and their parents and teachers in
the weeks after Hurricane Katrina five years ago by urging her order to support opening a so-called "MAX
School" at Xavier Prep's campus on Magazine Street.

The campus was shared temporarily by hundreds of displaced students and faculty from three historically
black Catholic high schools: St. Mary's Academy, St. Augustine High School and Xavier Prep.

"She saw it as a way to encourage the students' families to move back to the city after the flood," said
Carolyn Oubre, Xavier Prep's principal. "Students could come back and be with their friends, their teachers.
It was a building ... where each school's identity could be preserved and respected."

Sister Eileen attended schools near her hometown of Watertown, Mass., before joining the Sisters of the
Blessed Sacrament in 1966. Religious callings were a family tradition, said her oldest brother, Edward
Sullivan, who is a church deacon in Timonium, Md. Two of their uncles and their late brother Robert were all
priests.

She later earned degrees in education administration and supervision at Loyola University,

In 1971, she arrived at Xavier Prep, a well-known Catholic high school for girls, as an English teacher. She
coached the speech and debate team, became principal in 1982 and within six years was appointed school
president.

According to Oubre, Sister Eileen stayed "absolutely loyal and committed" to educating the city's young
African-American women.

One of her favorite triumphs was a student named Tremaine Sterling. The daughter of a single mother in the
impoverished St. Thomas public housing development, the young woman could not afford to attend Xavier Prep.
But Sister Eileen helped her apply for grants and partial scholarships from businessmen and philanthropists
across the country that let her finance four years at the school.

Sterling graduated in 1993 with a 3.71 grade-point average, seventh in her class of 133. She earned a
scholarship to Notre Dame University in South Bend, Ind., and, after completing her undergraduate work,
received advanced academic degrees.

"And there's dozens of other people that Sister Eileen helped that we never knew about," Oubre said. "She
prided herself in ... giving (financially challenged) girls a chance at achieving something in life."

In 1995, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament elected Sister Eileen to their leadership council. She moved
to Pennsylvania but returned to Xavier Prep in 2001 as principal and resumed her role as president in 2003.

As president she focused on her work as Xavier Prep's primary fundraiser despite a number of health
problems, her brother said. She suffered from a genetic disorder that limited her ability to walk and forced
her to rely on canes. She also battled a 2002 diagnosis of breast cancer.

Still, she appeared at seemingly every wedding and funeral involving her students and alumnae, Oubre said.

In her office was a picture taken of her with her favorite football player, New Orleans Saints running back
Pierre Thomas, on the day he spoke to Xavier Prep's student body in 2007.

Doctors discovered her fatal brain tumor in June. She moved to the order's motherhouse in Bensalem and spent
her last days visiting with relatives.

Her illnesses "may have slowed her, but they didn't stop her," Edward Sullivan said. "Eileen was a
positively positive person."

Survivors include one other brother, Thomas Sullivan of Watertown, Mass.; and three sisters, Alice Anderson
of Johnson Valley, Calif.; Margaret Mahoney of Scituate, Mass.; and Eleanor Donato of Watertown.

She was buried Aug. 18 in her motherhouse's cemetery grounds. Xavier Prep plans to hold a memorial service
Sept. 18 at 11 a.m. at St. Joseph Catholic Church, 1802 Tulane Ave.