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In Memory of Richard J. Sullivan

Richard J. Sullivan, the first commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, died December 10, 2013. He was 86 years old.

While DEP commissioner, Mr. Sullivan also served as New Jersey Governor William T. Cahill's alternate on the DRBC from 1970 to 1974.

NJ DEP was created on our nation's first Earth Day, April 22, 1970. Under Commissioner Sullivan's leadership, New Jersey became only the third state at that time to consolidate all of its environmental programs under one agency. 

He later helped to create the New Jersey Pinelands Commission in the late 1970s to protect the million-acre pine, oak, and cedar forests in South Jersey, and served for 10 years as its chairman.

The DRBC commissioners and staff offer our condolences to the Sullivan Family.

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Pictured in the photo on this page (from right to left) are DRBC Alternate Commissioner Richard J. Sullivan, Governor William T. Cahill, and Philadelphia Water Commissioner Samuel S. Baxter (advisor to the Pennsylvania DRBC commissioner). This photo was taken at the 1971 DRBC meeting in Dover, Delaware.