It is with deep sadness that his family conveys the death of Jeffrey (Spider) Sullivan to the hundreds of those whose lives he touched. There’s not one of them that could say he hadn’t made them howl with laughter and not one who can’t come up with an outrageous escapade shared. Usually more than one.

A force of nature who captivated any room he entered, Jeff led his life his own way and he lived his dreams until the last moments of his extraordinary life. Jeffrey grew up in Wethersfield, Conn., the son of Wethersfield Police Chief Thomas J. Sullivan and Maude Welles Sullivan. He was the great-great-grandson of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy under President Lincoln. His serious family line and impressive intellect never dampened Jeffrey’s pursuit of fun. Charismatic, a consummate storyteller and with a lightening quick wit, he collected friends in his many travels around the country and from every walk of life. Equally at home in a country club or a biker bar, he was truly “one of a kind.” Jeff spent the last years of his life on Martha’s Vineyard, where he had spent so many happy summers in his youth. He was truly content.

Jeffrey was predeceased by his twin sister Debbie (look out heaven, the Sullivan twins are back together!), and leaves with us his beloved son Ian Carter-Sullivan of Glastonbury, Conn., niece Jennifer Schroeder of Hopkins, Minn., and nephew Scot Cook of Minneapolis, Minn. A celebration of Jeffrey’s life is being planned for later this summer.