Mike Sullivan – Taking a Bow from His Encore Career

National Teacher Appreciation Week is May 8 – 12, 2023.  This week you will hear some incredible stories behind some of our great-hearted teachers. Help us express gratitude and share your appreciation to the men and women who are making a daily impact on the lives of our scholars.

Mike Sullivan has taught at Veritas Preparatory Academy since its opening 20 years ago. Mr. Sullivan, who teaches Classical Languages and Humane Letters, will be retiring at the end of this year. This is not the first retirement for Mr. Sullivan who came to Veritas Prep after retiring from a 20+ year career in law as a private practice attorney and University of Minnesota’s Student Legal Service. Sullivan has also served in the United States Army Intelligence corps as a translator and interpreter.

He reads Latin and Ancient Greek, and he speaks Italian, French, and German. He has been a member of several professional classical associations and has extensive teaching experience in high school Latin, Greek, Italian, Mythology, Medieval and Ancient History, and computers.

“I had already retired from the practice of law back in 2000 and I really had no particular plans. We had a little farm and I thought I’d take care of animals and maybe write something,” said Sullivan. He had been teaching evening classes on Plato, Aristotle, and St. Augustine at a local extension program when he was asked to help out and sub for a high school class for one day. “I actually really liked it. I’d been at the University of Minnesota forever and I never thought at all about teaching high school kids. But I found that I really like working with high school, so I started looking around for a place to do that permanently.”

Sullivan said he came to Veritas before there was a Veritas. “We were just setting it up,” recalled Sullivan. “I began teaching Latin but then as soon as we had a junior level Humane Letters class, I took that class and I’ve been doing 11th grade Humane Letters consistently since then. I also set up the original Greek program.”

“I want to recognize and thank Mr. Michael Sullivan for his twenty years of faithful service to the students and faculty of Veritas Prep,” said Great Hearts Arizona Superintendent, Brandon Crowe in a formal statement to staff. “Mr. Sullivan is both a remarkable human being (which renders him a terrific colleague and teacher) and representative of a Great Hearts teacher. He loves learning and he loves people. That all-too-simple ‘formula’ of wanting the best to form the best has driven him for two decades.”

In an informal setting, Crowe recalled a few times that Sullivan imparted wisdom to him as a new teacher early in his career. “Mike is great. He is earnest, fun-loving, honest, caring, and an example of how all Great Hearts teachers should view the work we are called to do,” said Crowe.

Sullivan says working with students has been the best part of his career. “Helping them see that they’re capable of doing more than they think they are, which was one of the founding principles – the idea that that American teenagers are capable of working with much more challenging material than they’re usually given and capable of doing it in ways that are much more challenging,” said Sullivan. “That’s what’s always been fun. It’s just always a joy to work with young people and help them gain access to what’s really pretty challenging material. That’s what kept me coming back. I love the material that we teach, the languages that stay with the students, and then the really challenging reading that we do, and discussing that we do in Humane Letters. It’s just wonderful.”

Sullivan is looking forward to spending time with his wife, hiking more, and possibly giving more time to his hobby of photography. “I have been working non-stop since I was 13, all the way through high school, all the way through college, even in graduate school and in law school I was working.” At 78, he does not plan to come out of retirement again to start another career.

Mr. Sullivan made a lot of jokes during this interview, but the tone turned a bit more serious when he ended the interview with these final words. “It’s been a complete joy! With all sincerity, it’s been a complete joy and I will miss the children and my colleagues,”

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