The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2014

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2014 89 Pres. Marcos then permitted the ships, newly outfitted with American flags, to land at the U.S. Navy base at Subic Bay. Mr. Sullivan’s final ambassadorial assignment was in Iran, from 1977 to 1979. When he arrived in Tehran the country was already in turmoil. In 1979 the White House instructed Amb. Sullivan to inform the shah that the United States believed he should leave Iran. At that point, all dependents and nonessential U.S. personnel were also evacuated. In February 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Iran, and on Feb. 14, several groups of men stormed and took control of the U.S. embassy grounds. Amb. Sullivan and some 100 other Amer- icans in the embassy compound were briefly held hostage, until a contingent from the interim government was able to escort them to safety. Mr. Sullivan left Iran shortly thereafter, and retired from the Foreign Service later that year. Following his retirement from the Foreign Service in 1979, Amb. Sullivan served as president of the American Assembly at Columbia University until 1986, when he moved to Cuernavaca, Mexico. He also served on the boards of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, the International Center in Washing- ton, D.C., and the U.S.-Vietnam Trade Council. Mr. Sullivan moved to the Washington area in 2000 due to failing health. He was predeceased by his wife, Marie Johnson Sullivan, and is survived by four children, Anne Sullivan of Washington, D.C., John Sullivan of Louisville, Ky., Mark Sullivan of Rochester Hills, Mich., and Peggy Sullivan of Bethesda, Md.; and six grandchildren. Donations in Mr. Sullivan and his wife’s memory can be made to The Fletcher Fund, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford MA 02155. n