Edmund (Ed) Sullivan and John Schulz

Continuing our series "Getting to Know Our Neighbors," we want to introduce you to Ed Sullivan and his husband John Schulz. They became owners of their Esplanade condo in November 2021, having become familiar with the building through renting another unit before buying. Ed’s mother also lived a few years here with John and Ed. They joked that the old adage is that the only one in the family who is willing to take care of the parents is the gay son or daughter. And as Ed said, we proved that true!

They both love it here: “It’s like heaven.” Watching the river and its many colors, sounds, and textures is “meditatively beautiful” and they agree with neighbors’ description of “the hushed reverence of the place.” Additionally, they both love to swim and, of course, the location is perfect. They had first looked at the Esplanade in 1989 but then for them, two young professionals, “it was too expensive.”

John and Ed have been together 37 years. They have one daughter, Caroline, adopted from China when she was eight months old. She now lives in Manhattan; after graduating from Wellesley College, Caroline worked for Michael Kors, then Oscar De La Renta, and now Tori Burch, involved with design and production. Caroline has always been bright, self-confident, and creative, and they are very proud of her. She visits her fathers regularly and, when there, checks on whether they’re taking care of themselves and eating well. “She takes charge and we love it!”

John and Ed have had a busy, full life together. John is originally from Corpus Christi. His family had a home by the water and a ranch. John grew up spending time on the water, in boats and at the ranch. He has always loved the area and his family is still there. John completed undergraduate studies at Texas A&M University and then received a doctorate in biochemistry at Harvard. At that point, John decided he wanted to have more direct impact on people, applied to medical school, and graduated in three years and two months from Yale Medical School. “I was the oldest in the class—started medical school at 31!” He loved the years there, knew he was on the right path, and, compared to the biochemistry program, was “like summer camp.” A five-year surgical residency at Massachusetts General Hospital followed.

After his residency John was hired as an attending surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital and Shriners Childrens’ Hospital in Boston.  In 2005 John moved to Connecticut where he served as medical director, the Connecticut Burn Center, associate chair, department of surgery, and chief of burns/trauma/surgical critical care at Bridgeport Hospital. Before returning to Boston, John served for a year as the director of trauma and surgical critical care and associate director of burns at Staten Island University Hospital in New York. He returned to Boston in 2015 as Medical Director, Division of Burns at Massachusetts General Hospital and has been there since. In a fascinating book, Burn Unit: Saving Lives After the Flames by Barbara Ravage, life and death and hope is detailed at a level-one Burn Center, and John’s work, skill, and compassion for the patients there is mentioned often.

Ed and his family lived in Belmont and, when he was eight, the family moved to Andover to a bigger house—Ed was the oldest of six kids. After receiving his B.S. in Economics from Boston College in 1972, and, in the years before entering law school in 1983, Ed worked for several organizations that served the needs of others, the Peace Corps in Senegal; Food for Peace; United Nations World Food Program; and the Agency for International Development. Ed was also the Capital Development Loan Officer where he was responsible for project design and implementation for West African countries. During this period, Ed obtained a Master’s of Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School.

In 1983 Ed graduated from Antioch Law School, and he notes that “Antioch was a pioneer in clinical law education and served the legal needs of low-income and minority persons. It was a perfect fit for me and my public service interests.” After Ed graduated from law school, he worked as an assistant district attorney with Scott Harshbarger, District Attorney of Middlesex County. Ed also worked with the Juvenile Justice Program (which followed and assisted young offenders after their release from prison) and the Board of Registration of Medicine which licenses and disciplines medical doctors. In the 1990’s Ed was hired as an assistant attorney general by James Shannon, Attorney General at that time. Ed was a litigator in the department, defending the government and the attorney general’s office. It was, he said, “different from my earlier work and difficult.” 

It was also at this time that they adopted Caroline, eight months old from China, and their life became richer, fuller, and busier! In an instant, they fell in love with this wonderful, feisty baby! Their number-one job became, and still is, to be there for her with unswerving devotion. Not always easy.  John was in the middle of his five-year surgical residency so they agreed that Ed would assume most of the care of Caroline, and he now says that “I now have a real appreciation for how difficult the traditional primary caregiver’s job is juggling work and kids.” 

Ed was then offered, following paternity leave, a job with the Department of Public Health whose hours were more predictable and reasonable than the Attorney General’s office.

During those years, John was at MGH, Ed was at the Department of Public Health, and they were living in the Charles River Park. Ed’s mother “gave us tons of help” and they had a nanny for a short time. After that, Caroline went to daycare on the first floor of the Ashburton Place; Ed’s office was on the 20th floor of the same building. In 1997, Caroline started at the Shady Hill School and in 1999 the family moved to their first home near Shady Hill, on Brattle Street in Cambridge.

In 2005, as mentioned earlier, John was offered the job as the medical director, the Connecticut Burn Center, associate chair, department of surgery and chief of burns/trauma/surgical critical care at Bridgeport Hospital. They decided to move to Connecticut and found a home in Fairfield. Ed took and passed the Connecticut Bar. And he openly shares the challenges of that time: “Caroline was 12 and in a new, demanding private school in Westport CT. She was an active middle-schooler there -- performances and athletic games all the time, tennis lessons, etc., and she needed a lot of chauffeuring here and there. And John was at Yale Bridgeport with long long hours!  At least one parent needed to be on hand for Caroline and there often was volunteer work to do at her school. We didn’t want a nanny to rear Caroline. I just let go of the idea of working for good. It was hard and for a period of time I resented my new life post-move from Cambridge. Fairfield Connecticut was no Cambridge!” They worked this through and during Ed’s remaining time in Connecticut he worked several times a month for New Haven Legal Assistance --seeing income-related qualifying clients with legal needs for help in landlord/tenant matters and family law matters.  “It was challenging often disheartening work, many poor folks finding themselves in seemingly intractable circumstances.”  

In fact, both Ed and John said the Fairfield area was “hedge fund wealthy” and they felt like “we were ‘tokens’ there.” One time Caroline came home from school and said that one of the other kids had told her: “You aren’t a real family.” Pleased that, given the choice, Caroline said that she’d like to “play a role in dealing with this,” and they reported the story to the principal that began a productive discussion. Once again, Caroline showed her strength and self-confidence, and they were very proud of her.

In 2013 John went to work in the Staten Island Hospital. Ed (Caroline was at Wellesley) remained at their house in Fairfield and Ed’s mother came to live with them. John had a small place near the hospital on Staten Island and came home as often as he could.  Then in 2015, John was offered his present position at MGH; he and Ed reported that they had a serious discussion about the impact on them of another move. They finally, as John remarks with a smile, “came to a happy place” and moved back to Massachusetts.  

John is still at MGH and, when he does retire eventually, he’ll continue to teach and “loves working with residents.” He will also continue his work with Physicians for Peace as he does now as a member of the Board and makes occasional medical visits to Bogota, Columbia. He loves to travel and has made a few trips recently with Caroline (South Africa, Europe) and will travel more when he has more time. Ed decides whether to go depending on the destination. He also loves to read and swim, as does John.

Until Covid, Ed did volunteer legal work. He’s also an artist (John says he’s “very good”), and he may check out several of the local museums for lessons. The past few years have been busy; Ed spent a year getting their Fairfield house ready to sell. His mother died last year at 92 and Ed was responsible for her delayed funeral services in Andover where his whole family came together in September.  Thinking ahead, he’s also interested in the “learning in retirement” institutions in the area. Important to his life is meditation and he spent retreat time at Blue Cliff Monastery, an 80-acre Zen Buddhist Monastery, and “came back renewed and happy.” About his “meditation teacher” Dandan Zhang (also a resident of the Esplanade), Ed notes that “I consider her my teacher. She is at once smart, kind, gentle and joyful.  She is also a very experienced lay Buddhist monk! We do a stretch of pure meditation guided by Dandan’s words and a stretch of the ancient physical exercise of tai chi and qigong.  I’m relaxed and calm afterwards. A great natural high! Her practice is based on Zen Buddhism and also the teachings of Thích Nhất Hạnh, a well-known Vietnamese Buddhist monk, that espouses ‘engaged Buddhism’ dedicated to non-violence, mindfulness. and social service.” 

And they’ve come full circle—they are now in the very place that they looked at in 1989!  John and Ed have led and continue to live full and remarkable lives together. They have successfully navigated the challenges as gay partners and parents; they have been successful in their professional lives, remarkably caring as parents and role models for others; and they have, all along, contributed to others’ lives in countless ways.  In fact, early on in their residence here, they volunteered their time and talents to speak at the Aging in Place Group and offered to do so again. Ed and John are open, friendly, bright, and fun, so say ‘hi’ when you see them.

Jane Hilburt-Davis