he tools for resolving social conflicts skillfully. Such a family had its code words and body language automatically in place and an outsider, as well as an only child who was as unrestrained as Tim, was ably personified in the saying of being a “loose cannon” in its midst.
Tim entered the family enthusiastically with his Irish charm and command of language and the family was like putty in his hands. It was as if another childhood began for Tim with teasing, control of comings and goings, lavishing clothes, cars and everything and dominating any family get-together with his choice of conversation and behavior.
Looking back at these times one can see that Tim had to be in control or things would go sour. The only person who on occasion would not be left sputtering with indignation was Mother Poteete who with lowered voice and carefully chosen words would make clear to Tim when he had overstepped his bounds.
To allay any wrong perceptions by the reader that Tim was only an irritant to the family, it needs to be emphatically stated that he was an enrichment to the family well beyond the material ways. Each person was impacted favorably and profoundly with lifetime benefits which mainly seem to be intangible.
Throughout his life Tim gave every person who got his attention a nickname with himself being the only person who did not have one, probably because he moved among friends who were not imaginative enough to give him one. Frequently the name he gave was a corruption of pronunciation of the name or usually something completely original but pertaining to a physical or character trait. Often the names were clever but many times they were painfully and accurately funny. “Squire” Poteete and O.P.L.A. were the names that stuck with Mother and Daddy throughout their lives. (Opla was Mother’s given name.)
In 1943 Tim and Reinette visited Mexico, one more of the many trips they would take together. This trip gave Tim an opportunity to indulge in his favorite pastime of writing cards and letters and buying foreign stamps. (During his younger adult years Tim collected volumes of stamps, amassing an impressive stamp collection.) Addressing and stamping the blank face of an envelope became an art form for Tim where he could get almost as much information on the front and back of the envelope as was in the contents of the letter. Again, armloads of souvenirs came back to Bakersfield in the form of jewelry, clothing, bric bracs, and trinkets.
University of Southern California (1944-1946)
Tim enrolled at USC in 1944 where he majored in journalism. As a sideline he recruited lots of young men as escorts for Ruth (unsolicited by Ruth!). From the USC yearbook this note is found: “Tim Sullivan, famed matchmaker.” This penchant for matchmaking quickly became one of the sources of friction between Tim and his new sisters, not to mention Mother Poteete. Pleas, tears, threats, and remonstrances of every kind fell on deaf ears with Tim as young men of all kinds were brought on to the scene. Mother Poteete was the only person before whom Tim’s willfulness would stop short, with this maternal interference sometimes resulting in a sullen retreat on Tim’s part for a while.
He was a member of the Roger Williams Club and Sigma Delta Chi (Professional Journalistic Fraternity). In 1945 Tim served in various positions on the Daily Trojan (the university paper) including Reporter, Desk Editor, Sports Page Editor, and Feature Editor. He wrote excellent editorials ranging from an historical analysis of the Republic of France as compared to contemporary issues in the U.S. to an inspirational Christmas message. He even sent features to the paper while traveling overseas in Sweden.
In the spring of 1946 Tim and Reinette made a trip to Sweden, on the way taking Lucille to meet Glenn Heitz’s folks in Madison, Indiana where Lucille became engaged to Glenn. They also arranged to meet Jeanne in Atlanta (she was stationed with the Waves in Washington, D.C. at the time.) where they visited relatives in Georgia and a Bert Linker in Chapel Hill, North Carolina (Bert was a very nice handsome young naval man whom Tim and Reinette had previously met at USC and Tim had introduced him to Ruth).
After leaving Jeanne in Washington, they went on to New York where they sailed to Sweden on the Gripsholm, the first ship sailing to Sweden after the war, filled with lots of returning Swedes planning on visiting relatives. They spent several months abroad.
Tim received the degree of Bachelor of Arts from the School of Journalism at USC, graduating cum laude on February 24, 1946
Business Endeavors (1946-1950)
For a period of time following his graduation from USC, Tim returned to Bakersfield and worked as a reporter for the Bakersfield Californian as well as for the Bakersfield Press for a little time.
In 1947 Tim served as campaign manager for the sale of Easter Seals, a position which mainly attracted him so that he could help Ruth Poteete get a job as an occupational therapist in Bakersfield. This same year Tim and Reinette bought a DeSoto sedan for $1,965.04, a car which they later drove across the U.S. and part of Canada.
In 1948 Tim and Reinette, accompanied by Carol and cousin Bertil Dahllöf, went to the Olympics in London. After that Tim, Reinette, and Carol traveled around Europe for six months, with a long visit to Sweden. Peggy and Clyde married in February of that same year and moved into Tim and Reinette’s house during their absence.
October of 1949 found Tim and Reinette in the Newton Highlands area of Boston, living in a rented apartment where they would reside for approximately three years. Several trips were taken abroad and a boat trip to South America during this three-year period. At Christmas time in 1950 they traveled to Sweden and made a surprise visit to Tim’s relatives. They went back to Sweden again in early 1951 to attend Möster (Aunt) Maria’s funeral.
At the time of this particular trip to Sweden Tim saw an ad in a Stockholm paper stating that adoptive parents were wanted for a baby coming in March. Tim investigated and a visit was made to the parents-to-be, Ulla Ahl and Svante Mattson in Salefteo. Svante was doing his army service. Anna Maria Teresa Sullivan was born March 24, 1951 and in May Reinette went back to Sweden to get Anna at the tender age of two months. Reinette lived with Bertil and Greta in Mariestad until August, then flew home to Bakersfield with their new daughter.
Graduate Education (1950-1955)
While living in Boston, Tim attended the Babson Institute of Business Administration, completing the requirements for a certificate on June 16, 1951. Tim also took classes at the Episcopal Seminary in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the beginning of his interest in the Episcopal Church, an interest that would eventually lead him into the ministry.
During the period Tim, Reinette, and Anna were away from Bakersfield, various family members lived in the house at 2703 19th street. Lowell and Carol and their children, along with Lowell’s father, lived there from 1953 to 1957 and Brian and Joel were born during this time. Jeanne and Arnold, Peggy and Clyde (as noted above), and Alan and Beverly also lived in the house at various times. Mark was born to Alan and Bev during the time they occupied the Sullivan home.
Prior to going to England in 1953 for an extended period of time, Tim bought four lots in the Westchester area of Bakersfield and had Max build a building. This building was eventually leased to Lowell Ball who had a medical supply company among other businesses. Mr. Ball remained as the same tenant for over forty years. A plaque was placed on the front of the building designating it the “Anna Sullivan Building, 1953.” The garage building on 17th and K had “T.E. Sullivan 1926” engraved at the top.
Traveling to England, the family rented an apartment near Hyde Park in London for part of the time they were there. They lived most of the time in an apartment in Oxford, about a mile from the Hall. Tim began in earnest to build his library, a library that would eventually fill the “Book House” at the Poteete residence in Grass Valley, with volumes and volumes left over to fill bookshelves and the basement of the house in Bakersfield. Tim enrolled at Wycliffe Hall, an evangelical seminary located in Oxford, England, and earned a Certificate in Theology in June of 1955. He was a conscientious attender of lectures and a scrupulous note taker, with handwritten notes from each class filling numerous notebooks.
Following the receipt of his certificate from Wycliffe Hall at Oxford, Tim and family returned to the Bakersfield area. During the summer of 1956 Tim served for a brief time as a “Lay Curate” at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Taft while the Rev. John Atkinson, rector, was traveling in Great Britain, Sweden, and Russia.
We praise Thee, O God; we acknowledge Thee to be the LORD.
All the earth doth worship Thee; The Father everlasting.
To Thee all Angels cry aloud; the Heavens, and all the Powers therein.
To Thee Cherubin and Seraphin continually do cry,
Holy, Holy, Holy: LORD God of Sabaoth;
Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty of Thy glory.
Morning Prayer
Book of Common Prayer
Ministry in Canada (1956-1958)
Tim pursued several options for possible ordination and assignment as a priest in a local parish in both England and the U.S. In May 1956 he met with the “Council of Advice” in Fresno and became a “Candidate for Holy Orders” in the Missionary District of San Joaquin. Tim started training at the Episcopal Seminary in Berkeley at the request of Bishop Sumner Walters of the San Joaquin Diocese.
In the late summer of 1956, Tim was invited by The Right Reverend Kenneth C. Evans, Bishop of the Diocese of Ontario, Canada, to come to Plevna for a period of service and Tim accepted, with the blessing of the Bishop of the San Joaquin Diocese. The Bishop described Plevna as “…a place of forest and lake, with a small frame rectory with all modern conveniences—oil furnace, electric stove, electric refrigerator.” In a subsequent letter he provided more information about the area:
Plevna is beyond Oso, the northern point in the Parish of Sharbot Lake. The road is not paved—it is a rough road and has many bends and turns in it. The countryside is forest and lake with little farming and some lumbering going on. Plevna is a tiny village on a stream, of about 200 souls, about half of whom are Anglican. Our church there was made up originally of equal parts of Anglican settlers and German Lutherans. They were, of course, assimilated a long time ago.
In Plevna we have a small modern Mission House with just two bedrooms upstairs, oil burning furnace, good water supply brought in by electric pump, and a kitchen furnished with electric stove and refrigerator. The view from the house in almost every direction is one of sheer forest. For the hunter and the fisherman it is quite an attraction during the right seasons.
The roads are kept open during the winter by snow plough for the sake of the high school students who go down every day to Sharbot Lake.
Plevna is a mission parish, which means that the cheque for stipend and travel is sent out at the end of each month from the Synod Office, and that part of it that the congregation supplies is sent in to us. The stipend is definitely not one to attract a person from the United States. The stipend is $200.00 a month and the travel allowance $50.00 a month ($3,000.00 a year, with the use of the house).
Besides Plevna there are two other spots in the Mission—one on a bay on the very beautiful Palmerston Lake, called Ompah—and the other at a little settlement that is largely Roman Catholic, called Ardoch.
What really constitutes a challenge to us in this area, is that there is no priest resident in an area of 300 to 400 square miles other than ours. An R.C. priest comes in to say Mass from a distance of about twenty miles or more, and the United Church is under the care to two deaconesses.
On November 14, 1956 Tim was appointed to be a Lay Reader and Catechist in the Mission of North Frontenac, with permission to perform baptisms and burials. He was admitted into the Holy Order of Deacons by the Bishop of Ontario on December 21, 1956 and admitted into Holy Order of Priesthood by the Bishop on Ascension Day, May 30, 1957. Tim’s ordination as a priest was held in a small brick Anglican church in Athens, a church known as Christ’s church, nestled on a hill, surrounded by shade trees.
Therefore, Father, through Jesus Christ your Son, give your Holy Spirit to Timothy Eugene John Sullivan; fill him with grace and power, and make him a priest in your Church.
Book of Common Prayer
In serving the Anglican Mission of North Frontenac, Tim was responsible for All Saints Church in Ompah, Holy Trinity Church in Plevna, and St. John’s Church in Ardoch.
It should be noted that during their first winter in Plevna, Tim, Reinette, and Anna experienced temperatures as low as 50° below.
Tim began to endear himself to the people by his eager willingness to be of help to them both spiritually and materially. (At one point his Bishop extracted a promise from Tim to the effect that he would not go head over heels in his generosity to his parishioners!) His human touch came through in the following poem he wrote to the ladies of the W.A.
“Ode to the ‘W.A.’ on the Festival of St. George.”
God be with you as you go
Through the mountain’s lingering snow
To the Belleville land below
Cheerfully along your way
As you chatter and as you pray,
Dear ladies of our own village “W.A.”
Remember though the battle long
And weary sometime the road,
St. George the Dragon slew of wrong
As he bore the cross’s load.
Sharing in the world’s strife and sin and pain
That he, with Christ, might put it right again;
Directed toward paths of joy and peace
Where faith in hope of love may still increase
Until you sing, each one, the victor’s song
“For God and country” as you march along!
The Bishop began to gain an understanding of Tim’s penchant for writing long and meandering cards and letters as evidenced from this quote from the Bishop’s letter:
I must certainly open up a file in my office marked “Letters from Ompah.” I thought I had a fairly juicy bit of correspondence when I read only the outside pages of your card. I noticed that page two didn’t run freely onto the last page, but I did not notice that the last page was number “7.” It was my wife who pointed out to me that we had the whole inside of the card covered with news.
And again the Bishop wrote:
You are excelling yourself in your epistles. I think you must be conscious of the fact that you are, because I notice that you jump from page ‘5’ to page ‘8’, and your eighth page is numbered ‘10.’ But I can assure you that even if you had written ten pages instead of a measly eight, I should have enjoyed every one of them.
And once again he wrote:
I read y
Now, for the first time I began to take an interest in girls. There was a pretty little Irish American girl who lived across the alley from us. Her name was Maxine Murphy and I learned how to tie a neck tie so as to appear more presentable to her. She had a brother, Bob Murphy and an older sister, Ursula. The Murphys were Catholic as were my cousin Esther and her family. Sometimes the Butys would have big parties on Saturday night, until 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. but they would always make it to the late morning Mass. But the time with the Butys was almost too happy to last and the bank (who controlled my estate) decreed that we should live at “2703”, my parents’ home in Bakersfield. For awhile a friend named Aggie Dempsey stayed with us in Bakersfield, but before long the “religious struggle” between Catholic and Protestants came into play with the result that somehow Mrs. W.J. Schultz and the Baptists succeeded in having my cousin Esther’s guardianship terminated. I was sorry to see Esther and the children leave. The first night they were gone I almost tried to sleep in a garden at Klipstein’s house, but finally I got up my nerve enough to ask the kindly Mrs. Swett if I could spend the night with them. Her son Johnny Swett was my best friend and he had a younger sister, Ruth.
Then I went to stay with another friend from the neighborhood, Billy Holmquist. After a few weeks there, Judge Erwin Owen, a kindly old Texas gentleman ruled that Mr. Holmquist should be my guardian, thus starting a new chapter in my youthful struggle to grow up.
*******************
Here ends Tim’s autobiography as written in 1973.
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Part II: Biography
(Note: The following biography was compiled from letters, interviews with family members, newspaper articles, and notations on photographs.)
Legal Problems Concerning Sullivan Estate and Guardianship
Following the death of Tim’s father in 1927, and just prior to the death of his mother about three weeks later, a legal battle began over the estate. A front page article from the Bakersfield Morning Echo of December 29, 1927 reads as follows:
START SULLIVAN ESTATE BATTLE
Widow Taken from Home on Warrant
Forcibly Remove Woman on Insanity Charge Following Funeral Declares Attorney
A bitter legal struggle between Mrs. Timothy E. Sullivan, widow of the late pioneer millionaire and a relative of the deceased was indicated last night by Edward A. Brittan of the firm of Brittan and Brittan, attorneys for the widow, in connection with the application of Mary E. Sullivan, a sister of the late millionaire and aunt of Timothy E. Sullivan, 10-year old son of the decedent, for appointment as guardian of the son and heir, following the removal of his mother from her home on a charge of insanity, preferred by Thomas O’Brien.
“The widow, Anna S. Sullivan, was forcibly taken from her home and is being held under an insanity charge preferred by Thomas O’Brien of Lebec,” said
Attorney Brittan, “while the Sullivans, who came here from the north to attend the funeral have taken possession of her home. Mary E. Sullivan, an aunt of the boy, has applied for appointment as guardian of Timothy E. Sullivan, Jr.”
“We have asked the Security Trust Company, named executor of the will, to immediately repossess the house,” said the attorney, “as it is the personal property of Mrs. Sullivan, to which they have no right of occupancy.”
“The Security Trust Company has also been requested to apply for special letters of administration to protect the estate,” said the attorney.
The action for appointment of a guardian for the boy and the granting of special letters of administration is being heard before Judge H. A. Peairs of the Superior court, proceedings being started yesterday.
“The arrest of Mrs. Sullivan upon an insanity charge took place at her home on Tuesday afternoon, following the funeral of her husband in the morning,” said Mrs. Richard Apsley, a neighbor and friend of the family. “This action,” she said, “aroused much criticism in the neighborhood owing to the fact that it appears to be part of a plan to part the mother and her son.”
“It seems as if a woman of such prominence, and known kindliness of character, would have been given more considerate treatment,” said Mrs. Apsley, “for she has been noted in this city for years for her charities, and sincere desire to serve the unfortunate.”
“She has been a devoted wife and mother, and if through illness and strain she has broken it seems as if she should be given the same gentle consideration and kindly treatment that she has shown others,” said the friend.
“Inside of half an hour after Mrs. Sullivan had been taken from her home by force relatives of Mr. Sullivan appeared and took possession. They discharged the household employees and Charles Hicks, who had been caretaker of the property and chauffeur, was required to give up keys to the garage and car,” said Mrs. Apsley, “and it is to be noted that the car and property are now being used by the Sullivans,” she said.
“Timothy Sullivan, Jr., center of a legal battle for his guardianship, and heir to the bulk of the great estate, is stopping at the home of Mr. and Mrs. John Swett, neighbors. Mrs. Sullivan is at Kern General Hospital where she was taken on Tuesday.
“Mrs. Clara Peterson of San Francisco, an old-time friend of Mrs. Sullivan, who was herself formerly a nurse, was among the callers upon Mrs. Sullivan yesterday. She reported that the woman should be in her own home, with a private nurse,” stated Mrs. Apsley. Miss Peterson is one of the head nurses at the Southern Pacific hospital at San Francisco.
Besides the sister, Mary E. Sullivan of San Jose, there are three brothers, John Sullivan of San Jose, Thomas Sullivan of Seattle, and Patrick Sullivan of Bakersfield.
On the following day, December 30, 1927, the following article appeared on the front page of the Bakersfield Morning Echo:
Security Bank to Administer Sullivan Estate
Special Writ Handed Down in Will Case
Administrator Ordered to Take Immediate Possession of Estate; Other Hearings Set
Special letters of administration of the estate of the late Timothy E. Sullivan, valued at more than $200,000 in a will made in 1918, were granted the Security Bank and Trust Company yesterday by Judge E.W. Owen of Kern County superior court upon petition of Attorneys Harvey and Heard representing the bank. Under the terms of the will the bank was named as guardian of the estate and the person of the son.
The hearing as to the guardianship of the bank was set by Judge H.A. Peairs for January 9 at 2 o’clock and the hearing on the application of Mary E. Sullivan, an aunt, for guardianship of the son Timothy E. J. Sullivan, Jr., was set for January 3.
Hearing of insanity charges against Anna S. Sullivan, widow of the decedent, was set for Saturday before Judge Owens.…
Under the terms of a codicil of the will, dated June 6, 1922, it was declared that substantial gifts had been made to the wife and the clause in the will leaving her the residue of the estate was revoked, and instead the son was made heir to the residue of the estate.…
To the widow, Anna Sophia Sullivan the east half block of 430, together with the improvements, was bequeathed according to the terms of the will.
The will also provided $35,000 in Liberty bonds and two 40-acre tracts and an 80-acre tract in Kern County as special bequests to the son T.E.J. Sullivan. Later in the codicil the residue of the estate was bequeathed to the son.
In the will the estate was valued at more than $200,000 and in the codicil it was valued at more than $10.000 according to the documents filed with F.E. Smith, county clerk, in the probate proceedings.
Anna Sullivan went to Los Angeles on December 30, 1927 and was admitted to a hospital under the care of Dr. Ross Moore. He stated in a letter dated January 28, 1928 to Oscar A. Swanson, relative of Anna, living in Chicago, that
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ys m m St Live Nude St St Live Nude