'A Living Legend'

Even when he lived in Washington D.C., former U.S. Speaker of the House Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill used to say that he remained registered in Cambridge so he could vote for Walter Sullivan and school committee member Joe Maynard.

Sullivan was always more interested in people than issues.

"Walter is a common man," says William H. Walsh, who has served on the city council since 1986. "He was never a public speaker and never a great legislator, but he has helped more people than all great legislators and all public speakers combined."

"He just liked to do things for people," says Eliot B. Spalding '26, a former editor of the Cambridge Chronicle. "His political success was based on helping people out and taking care of people."

Spalding says that he was once riding in a car with Walter when a lady pulled up next to them and thanked the councillor for something he had done for her three years ago.

"People who have never supported the Sullivans would call Walter when they needed help," Koocher says.

Without exception, Walter Sullivan would be there. "We're on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week," he says. "Whether people were with me or against me, I'd help them."

That policy would sometime upset the people around the councillor and mayor.

"The only people who ever get angry at Walter," says Rafferty, "are his friends, who wonder why he is helping people who are not loyal to him."

But when it came to policy making. Walter Sullivan wasn't always a friend of the little person. The city councillor was almost invariably pro-business.

"Walter represented the business community," says Edward N. Cyr, who served on the Cambridge city council from 1990-94. "He represented the chamber of commerce. He never voted for a down zoning."

"While they were political opponents, Cyr says he has always been fond of Sullivan.

Cyr says that when he was 15, he had to go before a review board to become an Eagle Scout. Walter Sullivan sat on the board.

Sullivan told Cyr then that he was too idealistic but that he "would get over it." After Cyr joined the city council in 1990, Cyr asked Sullivan if he thought the new councillor had gotten over his idealism.