Office of the President (Edward Sullivan)

Edward A. Sullivan, the sixth President of Salem State (then Salem Teachers College), was born in Cambridge, MA on October 14, 1895. He attended schools in Cambridge before entering Boston College, from which he was graduated with a B.A. in 1914. He received a M.A. degree in Classical Studies and English Literature from Boston College the following year. Following graduation, he taught for three years at Boston College High School before enlisting in the United States Navy in 1917. He returned to teaching in 1921, taking a position at Rindge Technical School in Cambridge. In 1921, he also began a sixteen-year stint teaching for the division of University Extension.

In 1937, he was appointed by Commissioner of Education James G. Reardon to the presidency of Salem Teachers College. Sullivan’s tenure was marked by external events, including World War II and the subsequent expansion of American higher education because of the G.I. Bill, as well as internal changes. The teacher training programs of the state teachers colleges were being revised to keep pace with national and local trends and changes in the needs of students and the country. In order to attain accreditation by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), Sullivan revised the education curriculum so that it included general education and specialized subject matter components as well as a professional education component. Salem was granted accreditation by the AACTE in 1950 and by the New England Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools in 1953.

In 1953, Sullivan retired from his position as President. He died on December 16, 1968.