Paul E. Sullivan; Business Leader, Executive

Paul E. Sullivan, a retired executive vice president of the Bank of America who served as president of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and national chairman of the Better Business Bureau, has died. He was 82.

Sullivan died Wednesday of cancer in his home in Palos Verdes Estates.

He began his 33-year career with the Bank of America in 1946 as a GI loan counsel and advanced to vice president and manager of the Los Angeles main office in 1964. He served as executive vice president from 1969 until his retirement in 1979. During his long career, Sullivan had also taught at the American Institute of Banking.

In addition to heading the Chamber of Commerce and the national Better Business Bureau in the late 1970s, Sullivan served as co-chairman and trustee of the National Conference of Christians and Jews and general chairman of St. Vincent Medical Center Development Program. He was also an executive with United Way, Hospital Care Fund, California Museum of Science and Industry, USC School of Business Administration, and the Central City Assn.

Sullivan chaired Mayor Tom Bradley’s City Economic Council and was president and director of Southern California Industry Education Council and founding treasurer of the Center Theater Group of the Mark Taper Forum. He also served on the boards of the Los Angeles YMCA and the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte.

Sullivan was named man of the year by both the National Conference of Christians and Jews and the Urban League, and also earned the Brigham Young Award.

A native of Lewiston, Maine, Sullivan graduated from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, and did postgraduate work in banking and management at the University of Washington and Harvard. He was a Navy lieutenant during World War II.

Sullivan is survived by his wife of 57 years, Grace; four children, Ann, Paul, Michael and Thomas; eight grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

Funeral services are scheduled at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Lawrence Martyr Church, 1900 S. Prospect Ave., Redondo Beach.

The family has asked that any memorial donations be made to the Paul E. and Grace H. Sullivan Scholarship Fund at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine 04011.