Thomas Sulpizio ’85G first visited the Grand Canyon in 1987. The breathtaking grandeur of this natural wonder leaves an impression on the millions who visit the park every year. Sulpizio’s visit, though, held far deeper meaning.
In 1956, his father was among 128 people killed when United Airlines Flight 718 collided midair with TWA Flight 2, that sent one plane plunging into the canyon floor and the other slamming into a butte’s rock face.
The accident led to a public outcry to modernize air-traffic control equipment, hire more air traffic controllers, and standardize the use of radar, homing beacons, cockpit voice recorders, and flight data recorders.
For Sulpizio, it meant growing up fatherless and relying on a tight-knit Italian family and neighbors in his New Jersey community, where he learned to be resilient and persistent while keeping alive his father’s legacy.
He visited his father’s gravestone and the monument dedicated to the lives lost during his inaugural visit at the Grand Canyon cemetery, the resting place for many early pioneers.
The trip sparked a deeper yearning in Sulpizio to become more involved in the Grand Canyon Historical Society. Today, he is president of that organization, leveraging the skills from his Master of Business Administration from Lehigh.
Those skills have been put to a test after tragedy struck once again: He has served as the society’s face during a challenging summer when the Dragon Bravo wildfire engulfed the North Rim and destroyed the historic Grand Canyon Lodge and numerous artifacts.
Earning His MBA
After earning an undergraduate degree from Villanova and a master’s in engineering at Princeton, Sulpizio was working at Air Products. The corporate headquarters in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania, had a strong relationship with Lehigh.
With some graduate classes offered on site and valued by his employer, he took one course a semester and earned his Lehigh degree in January 1985.
“I received a foundation in the functions of an enterprise, be it for profit or nonprofit,” he says. “From accounting, meeting dynamics, management, business law, organizational behavior, and marketing, my Lehigh degree rounded me out as a professional.”
Slightly older and more mature than some classmates, Sulpizio understood the material differently and applied classroom lessons immediately to his work.
This deftness helped him to climb the ranks through a variety of roles: project manager and applications engineer at UOP Fluid Systems in California, commercial development manager at W.R. Grace in Maryland, and vice president of marketing and then of global business at Imerys Filtration in California.
“I’ve had a 45-year career in every function of manufacturing,” he says. “I’m proud of the use of my Lehigh business education in a very credentialed marketplace.”
Grand Canyon Leadership
In 2014, the crash site in the Grand Canyon was dedicated as a National Historic Landmark. Sulpizio was on hand for that moment, meeting other families impacted by the tragedy and members of the Grand Canyon Historical Society.
This is when he began his service to that organization, attending meetings, assisting committees, and engaging in activities. He co-chaired its signature event, Grand Canyon History Symposium, in 2023, which included presentations and field trips on all topics of Grand Canyon history, including four devoted to the air collision. His work there led to a board seat. He was elected vice president in 2024, then president in January 2025.
He helped build the organization’s digital and social media presence. Then the Dragon Bravo wildfire struck.
The fire drew national attention, especially when the Grand Canyon Lodge, which opened in 1928, was destroyed. Its Facebook page had 12 million visits during the fire, and Sulpizio and his team have conducted 50 interviews for print, radio, and television, including “The Today Show.” Society membership expanded greatly after all the media attention.
His 300 hours of volunteer service a year ballooned into 600 hours. In many of the interviews, his Lehigh diploma is visible in the background.
Nearby sit books from those courses, which he continues to consult for ideas, answers, and foundational practices as he helps the Grand Canyon community rebuild from the fire.
