While cleaning out a closet this spring, Doris Sullivan happened upon a 20-year-old sports section featuring her eldest son as the cover subject.
Even through a still photo, a teenaged Billy Sullivan exuded kinetic energy; in full stride, his youthful face caged behind a mask, lacrosse stick poised for a pass or a shot.
A half-hour interview outside the Damien Memorial School gym had covered some of Billy’s exploits and his plans to continue playing at the Air Force Prep School. But he would turn the conversation to how he hoped the speed and physicality of lacrosse might spur the sport’s growth in the islands.
A call to one of his coaches provided insight to his fearlessness and tenacity despite playing against bigger opponents.
Those traits would serve him well after graduating from Damien as he progressed through prep school, on to the Air Force Academy and through an accomplished and far-flung career as a fighter pilot.
They would be a common theme again on Saturday as friends and family gathered in an aircraft hangar in California and recalled the energy and exuberance with which Billy pursued any endeavor and to honor a life dedicated to service.
Lt. Col. Billy “Taz” Sullivan died on June 7 when his personal aircraft crashed at the Porterville Municipal Airport in Central California.
A memorial was held at the California Air National Guard Base in Fresno, where he had served since 2019 and was named director of operations with the 144th Fighter Wing.
Lei hung over the corners of an enlarged photo of Billy smiling in the cockpit as speakers shared stories of a competitive nature that pushed him to excel and his ability to extract the best from others within his sphere.
They spoke of his love and loyalty to his family — Diane, his wife of eight months, parents Doris and William III, and brother Kevin, a Saint Louis alumnus and former Crusaders running back.
They recounted his humor and fun-loving side, the experiences Billy packed into his life and his knack for leaving a lasting impact on those he encountered “whether it was five minutes or 37 years.”
Born on Christmas Eve 1983 in Naples, Italy, Billy grew up in Maryland and Hawaii. He spent his last two years of high school at Damien, where he earned second-team All-ILH honors as a running back in the fall of 2000 and competed as a pole vaulter with the track and field team in the spring.
Doris Sullivan would soon become a prominent figure herself in Hawaii high school sports in helping hundreds of student-athletes pursue and secure college scholarships and opportunities over more than a decade as founder and director of the Pacific Islands Athletic Alliance.
She would count Billy as one of her first “clients” as he went through his college search, which effectively ended when he came home one afternoon and proclaimed his plans to attend the Air Force Academy.
Doris, quick with a quip, responded, “You know you’ll have to make your bed, right?”
After we connected for the aforementioned article on Billy’s love for lacrosse, Doris remained a trusted contact through her work with PIAA. A phone call on an upcoming football combine or email on detailing a signing-day ceremony often included an update on Billy’s progress through the prep school, then the Air Force Academy. He extended his football career in prep school and played for the Academy’s lacrosse team.
After earning his degree in general engineering in 2006, he graduated Top Gun in his class in flight school and went on to active-duty assignments as a fighter pilot in England and Japan.
After she found the article while cleaning in March, she sent a message to touch base to let me know Billy was now married and had just been promoted to lieutenant colonel earlier in the month and we marveled at how time had flown since that first meeting.
A memorial in Hawaii is planned for September, and as the Sullivan family processed Billy’s loss over the past two weeks, the scope of his influence came into even clearer focus.
“I’m amazed at the number of people who knew from all over the world who have reached out to us,” Doris Sullivan wrote in a message prior to Saturday’s ceremony.
“Mr. Aloha.”
