Tom Sullivan

Tom Sullivan’s life is a testament to courage and challenge. Born 3 months premature, Sullivan was given too much oxygen in an incubator that saved his life but cost him his sight. Sullivan’s achievements are remarkable despite the disability.

Educated at the Perkins School for the Blind, Providence College, and Harvard, Sullivan excelled as a student and an athlete. Sullivan’s a member of the Wrestling Hall of Fame, a marathon runner, avid skier, and golfer who routinely shoots in the high 80’s.

His career as a singer/songwriter has taken him to concert venues around the world, and his roles as an actor have entertained audiences on TV series like “Highway to Heaven,” “Touched by an Angel,” “Designing Women,” “Mork and Mindy,” and WKRP in Cincinnati. He also spent 6 years as a special correspondent for ABC’s “Good Morning America” where his touching stories on people beating the odds became a Wednesday morning staple. He is the author of 14 books and his biography, “If You Could See What I Hear,” was made into a highly successful movie in 1982. He notes that being married to his wife, Patty, and having his children, Blythe and Sullivan, are his greatest treasure and most important achievement.

Sullivan’s spirit of philanthropy has placed him on countless non-profit boards, and he is particularly proud of the $8 million he and Patty have raised for the Blind Childrens Center of Los Angeles.

Over the last 15 years, Sullivan has spoken to over 2,000 ophthalmologists, optometrists and their staffs representing Allergan Pharmaceuticals, offering his special insight on the need for eye professionals to engage in an intimate form of patient care.

Showing no signs of slowing down, Sullivan has turned his attention to the support of research that he believes will someday eliminate most forms of debilitating blindness. He has recently become the Ambassador of Vision for the Discovery Eye Foundation, a philanthropic group whose mission is to fund translational research through the best scientists in the world. Together they hope to find answers that will preserve people’s gift of sight. Sullivan’s formula for living is remarkably simple: “Challenge yourself to be the best person possible and in that effort, choose to make a difference in the lives of others.”