James Bolling Sullivan III

James Bolling “Bo” Sullivan III, 84, who called Beaufort, North Carolina home for 54 years, died peacefully, surrounded by his family, on Thursday, October 17, 2024.

The Joyful Celebration for Bo’s life, officiated by the Rev. Ashley Simpson, will be at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Beaufort, at 11:00am on Monday, October 28, 2024.

Born in Rome, GA, on March 19, 1940, to the late James Bolling Sullivan Jr. and Eleanor Wyckoff Sullivan, Bo’s early education included the Darlington School for Boys in Rome, Shades Valley High School in Birmingham, AL, and The Choate School in Wallingford, CT.

Bo discovered the natural world while exploring the woods around his childhood home. When his older cousin asked him to “Please stop shooting all the birds I’ve been busy putting leg bands on...” Bo decided to help him with the banding process instead. He quickly fell under the spell of all things feathered, and became the youngest federally licensed bird bander in the country.

His passion for ornithology led him to Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, where he received a BA in Zoology in 1962, and served as the chapter president of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.

A natural athlete, Bo could beat almost anyone at any game – basketball, golf, and tennis being favorites. However, while traveling through Point Clear, AL, for a tennis tournament in 1959, the young bachelor would meet his match. Neither sports nor birds could compete with Ashley Luce’s feminine charms. The couple married in Mobile, AL, in 1963.

Moving to Austin, (where they would welcome a son), Bo went on to earn his Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of Texas in 1966. A Postdoctoral Research Fellowship followed at Duke University in Durham, NC, from 1966 to 1969 (with two daughters joining the family).

In 1970, Bo moved to the Duke Marine Laboratory on Piver’s Island in Beaufort, where he became an associate professor of Biochemistry (and his young family would put down permanent roots).

Bo’s early interest in birds gradually evolved into an even deeper fascination with a different group of airborne creatures – butterflies and moths. With insect nets and UV-light traps in hand, his single-minded pursuit of the Lepidoptera order would take him to the mountains, jungles, and coastal forests of Ecuador, Brazil, Panama, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Mexico, and Costa Rica. However, his favorite destination was Colombia, until the rise of the drug cartels made collecting trips there too dangerous.

Changing focus to his home state, Bo became a founding member of the North Carolina Biodiversity Project, a leading expert in moth taxonomy, and a major contributor to the website Moths of North Carolina, which documents the population, habitat, and history of every species found across the state. Author of approximately 175 scientific papers and journal articles, Bo’s extensive regional research and field work culminated in co-authoring the 2012 publication Owlet Caterpillars of Eastern North Carolina.

Bo was widely respected as a research associate and contributing collector for many prominent institutions including the American Museum of Natural History, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, NC State University, Arizona State University, the University of Florida, and the Costa Rican Institute of Biodiversity. His remaining collection of over one hundred thousand specimens will become part of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. 

While butterflies and moths were Bo’s abiding lifelong interest, his career took a surprise left turn in 1975 when he bought Gaskill’s – Beaufort’s old-fashioned feed, seed, and hardware store. From the corner of Live Oak and Mulberry Streets, the man who worked with creatures that fly became the man who worked with creatures that walk. His studies over the next 25 years shifted to hay and hog feed, vegetables and fertilizers, selling and repairing lawn mowers and chainsaws, stocking hand tools and toilet plungers, mixing paint, and supplying Easter biddies and Christmas trees for the many eastern Carteret County families he cared about deeply.

An active supporter of numerous national and local organizations, Bo served on the Executive Committee of the Lepidopterist’s Society, on the local Board of Directors for Branch Banking & Trust Corporation (now Truist Bank), on the Finance Committee of the Beaufort Historical Association, and as a founding member on the Board of Beaufort’s Tiller School.

Bo is survived by Ashley, his wife of 60 years, and their children, James Bolling Sullivan IV, and his wife Nancy Sullivan, of Portland, OR; Fielding Williams, and her husband Russel Williams of Charlotte, NC; and Ann Herndon Eskew and her husband, James Eskew, of Decatur, GA. He is also survived by six grandchildren; Riley, Jex, and Hoyt Williams; Sarah Bolling Sullivan, and Frances and Fielding Eskew, as well as his brother, Peter Wyckoff Sullivan, and his wife Ann Sullivan, of Marietta, GA.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the North Carolina Biodiversity Project at nc-biodiversity.com, or to the Beaufort Historical Association, 150 Turner Street, Beaufort, NC, 28516.

Condolences and life tributes may be sent to the family at www.noebrooks.net.

Arrangements by Noe-Brooks Funeral Home, Morehead City, NC.