Former Oswego city mayor, semi-retired attorney and SUNY Oswego alumnus John T. Sullivan Jr. will participate in a book signing of his new memoir from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, June 9, at the College Bookstore in the Marano Campus Center.
His latest self-published book, "Pee Not Your Pants: Memoirs of a Small Town Mayor with Big Time Ideas," will be available for purchase at the bookstore as well as at the River’s End bookstore, 19 W. Bridge St., Oswego; and online in both print and kindle format by major booksellers like Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Half of the proceeds will be donated to the Oswego Alumni Association’s scholarship fund.
Sullivan, an Oswego native who now lives in Saratoga Springs, will be on campus for the Class of 1968’s 50th Anniversary celebration, part of the college’s Reunion Weekend 2018, June 7 to 10. The book fits well with Reunion, as the author regales the reader with stories of his college years and later days as mayor of Oswego during the founding of Harborfest.
As a student at SUNY Oswego, Sullivan majored in political science and also unsuccessfully ran for the office of president of the Student Association. He chaired the Sheldon Debate Club and worked as an intern in the office of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. He hosted a popular radio show on WSGO, titled "Salute to Oswego State," and wrote a weekly column “PDQ” (politics damn quick) for The Oswegonian. He shares lots of stories about those days, and he tells them with a bit of humor and hyperbolic flourish.
Sullivan has spent much of his career in public service, working as mayor of Oswego from 1988-91, chair of the New York State Democratic Party from 1995-98, assistant district attorney general in Watertown from 2003-07 and deputy Medicaid inspector general until retiring in 2009. Since then he has devoted his time to teaching government at the college level and writing op-ed pieces for several newspapers, including the Albany Times Union, New York Post and Syracuse Post-Standard. He is also a columnist for the Palladium-Times in Oswego.
Sullivan is also the author of "Forks in the Road: Small Town Lives and Lessons," a collection of Oswego-oriented short biographies based on a monthly column he writes for the Palladium-Times. He is currently working on "Forks in the Road II," which should be available at the end of July.
For more information on SUNY Oswego's annual reunion, visit alumni.oswego.edu/reunion or call the Reunion Hotline at 315-312-5559.