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John Godfrey Sullivan
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Engineer.
Born at Bushnell’s Basin, New York on 11 January 1863, son of Thomas and Honora Sullivan, he was educated at Fairport High School and Cornell University, graduating from the latter in 1888 with a degree in civil engineering. From 1890 to 1893, he was an Assistant Engineer on the Great Northern Railway at Minneapolis, Minnesota, building the railway from Havre, Montana to just outside Seattle, Washington through the Marias and Stevens Passes. He came to Canada in 1893 and worked for a year with the Alberta Railway and Coal Company.
In 1894, he commenced work in the Kootenay and Boundary areas of British Columbia, first as Principal Assistant Engineer on the Kaslo and Slocan Railway and then for four years as Assistant Engineer on the Columbia and Western Railway from Trail to Midway.
He joined the Canadian Pacific Railway in early 1902, first in Winnipeg as Division Engineer of Construction in charge of all projects west of Fort William. From 1905 to 1907, he was Assistant Chief Engineer for construction of the Panama Canal. He focussed on earth moving, particularly of the Culebra Cut, which greatly benefitted by his design adjustments to the plows for emptying the railroad flat beds. After rejoining the CPR in 1907, he served successively as Engineer, Assistant Chief Engineer of Western Lines, Chief Engineer for the Western Division, and finally Chief Engineer for Canada. In 1916, he designed the five-mile (eight-kilometre) Connaught Tunnel through the Canadian Rockies.
Following his retirement from the CPR in 1918, he remained in an advisory capacity until 1927 while also working as a consulting engineer with the Canadian Engineering and Construction Company, in partnership with Theodore Kipp and William Gregory Chace, until 1928, during which time he served as Chair of the Sullivan Drainage Commission (1919-1921). He served as President of the American Railway Engineers Association (1918), was appointed to the Provisional Board of the newly established Professional Engineers Association of Manitoba (1918), and was Chair of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers (1922).
In recognition of noteworthy contributions to the field of engineering, he was given an honorary doctorate by the University of Manitoba (1937), the first engineer to receive an honorary degree from the University, and was awarded the Sir John Kennedy Gold Medal by the Engineering Institute of Canada (1937).
He and wife Sarah Ann Sullivan (1866-1933) had four children: Paul Livingston O'Sullivan (1895-1967, husband of Bernice Ruth Bawlf), Gertrude Mary Sullivan (1897-1987, wife of Karver Louis Puestow), Dorothy S. Sullivan (1899-1988, wife of John Roderick Lindsay), and John Thomas Sullivan (1903-1942). He was a member of the Manitoba Club and St. Charles Country Club. He served as a Winnipeg city alderman (1920-1927). A portrait painted in 1922 by artist Victor Albert Long is held by the City of Winnipeg Archives.
He died at his Winnipeg home, 207 Harvard Avenue, on 7 August 1938 and was buried in the St. Mary’s Cemetery.
See also:
Manitoba Business: Canadian Engineering and Construction Company
Death registrations, Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Who's Who and Why, Volumes 6 and 7, 1915-1916, page 538.
“Puestow - Sullivan,” Manitoba Free Press, 22 June 1925, page 9.
“Engineering body confers honor on John G. Sullivan,” Winnipeg Free Press, 1 February 1937, page 13.
“Former alderman is dead,” Winnipeg Free Press, 8 August 1938, page 1.
“Sullivan estate is valued at $16,172.30,” Winnipeg Free Press, 8 September 1938, page 22.
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Association of Professional Engineers of Manitoba, 20 January 1949, page 4.
Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.
We thank John R. Lindsay II and Leslie Hildebrandt for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 2 March 2025
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