I never really knew my grandfather, John Thomas Sullivan. He died in 1967 when I was two years old, but I was afraid of him anyway. Fearing a dead man may be irrational, but John Sullivan's reputation as a mean, opinionated man transcended life or death. It wasn't until five years ago when I began my genealogy research of the Sullivan family that I realized Grandpa Sullivan probably had good reason to be the way he was.