Edward Sullivan, 83, Renowned Internationally For His Origami Skills

Give him a $1 bill and Edward Sullivan wouldn't necessarily see money. He would see something he could fold.

And a few minutes later, Mr. Sullivan no longer had a $1 bill in his hand. He had a bull named "Dollar Bull" or a whale, named "Moby Buck."

Internationally recognized for his creations in the Japanese paper-folding art of origami, Mr. Sullivan died at 83 at his home near Angle Lake Sunday.

"There was origami all over the house, on shelves, hanging on mobiles. He had built a bunch of little castles and placed them around the house," recalled Joy Sullivan, his wife of 49 years. "It took so much skill and imagination.

"And if people who did origami were passing through, he'd invite them over and they'd spend the whole night folding paper."

Phillip Yee of Seattle was one of those people.

Yee met Mr. Sullivan after joining an international origami club called Friends of the Origami Center in New York.

"I just called him up and he invited me to dinner that night," recalled Lee. "He told me stories about other internationally known origami makers, he showed me his origami books and his collection (of origami), then we folded together."

Those moments were special for Yee, who especially liked the simplicity of Mr. Sullivan's creations.

"Origami can be difficult when you start out. It takes a certain amount of skill and dexterity. Ed made animals and toys you could make quickly - things kids would enjoy," said Yee. "And the kids could learn to fold just by watching."

Mr. Sullivan was born in Brooklyn and raised in Freeport, N.Y., where he graduated from high school in the late 1920s.

He left home and traveled around the country during the Depression, finding work where he could.

While in Texas, Mr. Sullivan attended art school and sold advertising for a newspaper. He also received technical training at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey. He was drafted into the Army in 1941 at 32 and served until 1945.

While in the South Pacific, he read origami books and learned to fold by following the diagrams and pictures.

In 1943, Mr. Sullivan met Joy Day of Okanogan while on his way to an Army electronics school in Florida. Four weeks later, they married.

After the war ended, the Sullivans lived briefly in Seattle before moving to Liberty Lake, just outside Spokane, where Mr. Sullivan sold advertising.

The couple moved to Seattle in the 1950s and in 1961, Mr. Sullivan went to work as a technician for The Boeing Co., where he worked 18 years before retiring.

Mr. Sullivan experimented with origami and developed his own creations, including a rabbit that would hop when you pushed down on it. His daughter, Candace Sullivan of Washington, D.C., will always remember that rabbit.

Once, while she getting ready for a date, Candace said her father introduced himself to the young man and innocently asked, "Wouldn't you like to learn how to make a pop-up bunny?"

Apparently bewildered at the odd request, Candace said the man declined the offer and never called her again.

"It was one of the most humiliating experiences of my life," she said, laughing. "My date thought this was just strange."

Mr. Sullivan joined Friends of the Origami Center in the late 1960s. From the club, Mr. Sullivan exchanged origami ideas and folds with other fans of the craft.

In 1986, Mr. Sullivan won an international origami contest in France. His most famous creation, often shown in books, was a castle made from a series of block folds that could be joined to add more rooms.

Before he died, Mr. Sullivan had been working on his own book on origami and a biography of his father.

Besides his wife and daughter, Mr. Sullivan is survived by sons Mike of Chehalis and Terry of Seattle, and his younger brother Neil of Fresno.

A memorial celebration will be held Dec. 13 at 3 p.m. at the family home.