Al Sullivan’s journey through the 1960s brought him into contact with soldiers, beat poets, the Merry Pranksters, and even followers of Charles Manson, but eventually he went back to school and changed direction.
Sullivan grew up in historic Paterson, N.J., the former silk town on the Great Falls. He still is fascinated by Silk City and bases a lot of his fiction there.
He graduated from Clifton High School and served briefly in the Army during the Vietnam conflict, but was never sent overseas. After that, he worked for 10 years as a truck driver making deliveries.
He crossed paths with the cultural trailblazers of his generation during that time.
“I was always the loner radical.” – Al Sullivan
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Sullivan entered William Patterson College in the late 1970s. Even though people joked at the time that the college’s initials stood for “We Party Constantly,” his experience there only served to introduce him to more artists and writers. He majored in English with a writing concentration, and eventually switched to journalism.
Scrap paper
When he graduated, Sullivan and a friend started a publication called Scrap Paper Review. They published it in newsprint and distributed it around the area. He also worked inside a Fotomat and as a baker for Dunkin’ Donuts.
A friend of Sullivan’s was leaving his job as a part-time reporter for a newspaper called Wayne Today. Sullivan got the spot, covering Paterson, Totowa, Little Falls, and West Paterson.
In 1987, he put out a “Winnie the Pooh”-themed anti-war issue of the Scrap Paper Review. He and his co-publisher were interviewed on WBAI radio, where Sharon Griffin served as a DJ. Sullivan and Griffin hit it off. They were married in 1990.
After he was married, Sullivan wanted more steady employment. He moved to Hoboken in 1992, and there, he saw an ad for a reporter for the Hudson Reporter newspapers.
“I thought I talked myself out of the job,” Sullivan said last week. “I told [then-editor] Michael Richardson that I liked being a small-town reporter.”
Small-town scribe
Sullivan covered Secaucus for nearly a dozen years, except for during 1997, when he went to work for a chain of weeklies in Bloomfield.
In 2004, he took the Bayonne beat when the Reporter added the Bayonne Community News to its chain.
Sullivan also began doing a countywide political column, Between the Lines, in 1999.
During that time, a friend who read his profiles suggested he send them to Rutgers University Press. In 2001, Rutgers decided to publish a book of Sullivan’s articles. Titled “Everyday People,” the book is still available on-line.
Employee of the month
Now a senior staff writer at the Reporter chain, Sullivan is an integral part of the newspaper’s operations. Young reporters draw on his vast knowledge of local politics, and his contemporaries benefit from his many creative strengths.
This past month, Sullivan completed the arduous task of editing and producing the videos of the Reporter’s municipal election debates for Bayonne, Secaucus, and Hoboken. He added the titles and music and did all the editing you see on the videos on our website, www.hudsonreporter.com.
Sullivan was praised for his talents and sense of humor.
“Al always has a cheerful hello for everyone,” wrote one colleague when nominating him for Employee of the Month. “If you have a question he takes the time to help.”
“Al has been a loyal employee for many years and continues to show dedication to his job and a commitment to his professional integrity,” wrote another peer. “Whether he is covering political scandals or the Christmas play at a local school, Al is focused and dedicated to the job at hand… When he asks, ‘How are you?’ he really wants to know!”
“He’s a damn good writer and needs to be recognized,” wrote a third colleague.
Al said last week that he was “surprised and delighted” to get the nod. “I liked the fact that it involved a new aspect of my creative side, which is doing the video,” he said. “The debates turned out very informative, so that’s a good thing.”
Sullivan is still creating novels and wacky videos on the side. To see them, click on www.scrappaperreview.com. He is also submitting novels and looking for an agent.
But he still greatly enjoys journalism.
“Every community has elements of the community – the banker, the shoemaker, and you have the reporter,” he said. “I like the idea of playing a role in society. I was outside of society for so long.”
He added, “I was always the loner radical, and now I’m doing something important, and that’s what it’s all about.”
And through some of his writing, Sullivan is still challenging the powers-that-be.
Caren Matzner can be reached at editorial@hudsonreporter.com