Interviewer(s): A. Anand. Houma, LA

Affiliation: University of Arizona

Vinson "Bill" Sullivan was born in rural Mississippi in 1934. He went to the university, the military, and Junior College, and joined Otis Engineering in Hattiesburg, Mississippi when he graduated in 1959. Bill worked for Otis as a slickline workman, then a wireline operator, and eventually did various tasks related to surface and subsurface safety valves. He set up a subsurface safety valve repair facility in Houma in 1973 and retired as shop manager in 1991.