Daniel Edward Sullivan

Daniel Edward Sullivan was called home to eternal rest on October 22, 2024. He was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on August 30, 1945, to Jane (née Stephens) and Bartholomew Sullivan. He grew up with his older sister, Jane Weese (dec.) (Robert Weese).

Dan graduated in the first Senior class of Cardinal Gibbons High School and then attended Broward Community College and his beloved Florida State University, where he developed a lifelong love for his Noles.

While still in college, he ventured north to Upstate New York, where he worked two summers at the Sugar Maples Resort. This was quite the adventure for a young man from Fort Lauderdale and required riding four buses over three days. This was the beginning of his wanderlust.

After college he became the Administrator for Edward Stack, the Broward Sheriff, and his successor, Robert Butterworth. Among other responsibilities, he wrote grants and significantly expanded the department’s capabilities by acquiring helicopters and new technologies. During this time, he also earned his helicopter pilot’s license.

In 1968 and 1972 he supported security measures for the Republican National Conventions in Miami Beach. The political bug which had been planted during his college days as a member of the College Republicans was reignited. He was assigned a driver during the convention, and years later, he was amused to learn that this Young Republican volunteer had become the nationally recognized candidate and Vice President Dan Quayle.

In 1979, he purchased Pan Am’s round-the-world ticket, took six months off, and set out to see the world. He was one of the first tourists to enter mainland China.

Upon returning from his trip, he hit the road to support the presidential campaign of a friend of a friend, which led to his first meeting George H.W. Bush. It was during this campaign that this Florida native first saw snow in Iowa.

When Bush’s campaign folded, he returned to Fort Lauderdale but soon received a call to join the Reagan-Bush campaign. After the election, he returned to South Florida but soon sought new adventures, packing up Nellie, his Jeep CJ7, and driving to Washington, D.C., where he couch-surfed until he landed a position in The White House on then-Vice President Bush’s staff as the Assistant to the Vice President for Scheduling and Advance.

He traveled the world with Vice President Bush, who was the most-traveled VP to date, visiting every state and every continent except Antarctica (which he later visited in retirement). This whirlwind travel schedule included making arrangements for the Vice President to attend numerous state funerals overseas, including three in the former Soviet Union; meetings with Pope John Paul II and Margaret Thatcher; and stays at palaces all over the world. His stories could fill volumes. He gave many future public servants their first taste of working in government and helped launch many careers in government.

In 1981, during a domestic trip this self-proclaimed confirmed bachelor saw for the first time the young woman who would become the love of his life, Emma Lopo, when she volunteered in a Bush advance office in Miami. He discreetly asked the U.S. Secret Service who she was; they reported back that she was Cuban, a Catholic school teacher, 22 years old, and, most importantly, single. For a year, he flew down early on all Bush trips, hoping to cross paths again. They eventually did and what had been irregular trips to Fort Lauderdale to visit his mom became monthly trips to Miami to court Emma.

They married in 1985, and Dan continued in various positions in the Reagan-Bush and Bush-Quayle administrations, including roles at USTR, the Department of Commerce, and the Peace Corps. He also spent two and a half years in Los Angeles and Lake Tahoe working for American financier, Michael Milken. He returned to government in 2002 after September 11th , as Director of the Visa Waiver Program at the new Department of Homeland Security until his retirement in 2009.

In 1988, he experienced the happiest day of his life: the birth of his daughter, Emma Marie. He loved being a girl dad and everything that entailed - playing Pretty Pretty Princess; inventing games to share his love of travel with her; coaching her first soccer team, even though he had never seen a complete soccer game; and helping her move in and out of many dorms and apartments. In retirement, the travel bug continued to be nurtured as he and Emma traveled overseas often (he visited a total of 160 countries) as well as revisiting many of the 50 states.

During the past 40 years, he was an active parishioner at the Basilica of St. Mary Catholic community in Alexandria, where he served as an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion for nearly 20 years. He also served as the President of his community’s HOA, volunteered at INOVA Fairfax Hospital, and supported activities at his daughter’s Catholic schools.

In 2024 he was diagnosed with metastatic melanoma, but even then, he and Emma managed to fit in one last road trip through New England.

Dan was predeceased by his mother, father, sister, and nephew, Adam Weese. He is survived by his wife and daughter, as well as nephews Jason Weese (Heather), Ryan Weese (Kim), and Christopher Wolfe; two grandnephews and a grandniece; and his sisters-in-law Alina Lopo (Steve Wolfe, dec) and Diana Lopo (Maryellen Tria).

Visitation will be at Demaine Funeral Home in Alexandria on Sunday, November 3, from 5 to 8 p.m. A rosary will be prayed at 7 p.m. that evening. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at the Basilica of St. Mary on Monday, November 4, at 10 a.m.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Scholarship Fund at the Bush School of Government and Public Service‘s DC Teaching Site. Mailing address: George and Barbara Bush Foundation, PO Box 14141, College Station, TX 77841-4141. Please include a notation on the check that it is in memory of Dan Sullivan.

To perpetuate Dan’s legacy of adventure please book a trip, take a hike, read a book to a child about a faraway place, and always gift newborn babies a globe to inspire curiosity about the world.