Capt. Sully Sullenberger Shares the Lessons on Courage, Integrity & Teamwork He Hopes His Granddaughter Will Carry Forward

Nov 10, 2026 by apost team

Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger is best known for the 90 seconds in which he guided a crippled airliner onto the Hudson River and saved all 155 people on board. The legacy he is working on now is smaller, quieter, far more personal, and aimed at an audience of just one.

Sullenberger, who has revealed that he is living with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease, has been open about how he is spending his days. “I can control how I choose to live my life every day,” he told PEOPLE.

His current focus is a book for his granddaughter, Eleanor, written as a series of letters. The subjects are the values he has tried to live by: courage, integrity, empathy, and teamwork. “These are the principles that have guided me throughout my life, in the cockpit and beyond,” he said, “and I hope they’ll guide her too.”

The letters sit alongside a full life in the present. Sullenberger and his wife, Lorrie, watch Eleanor a few days a week, and he describes a little girl who keeps them busy and brings them joy. He added a grandfather’s playful observation: she seems to prefer him, much to Lorrie’s chagrin.

Alongside medical care and time with family, he has said that exercise and purposeful work fill his days. It is a routine built around what he can still do and share, rather than what he cannot.

The same man who spent a career following checklists is now building something less technical and more personal: a record of what he believes, written in his own words, for a child who will one day be old enough to read it.

Sullenberger first shared his diagnosis publicly with a statement that framed the next chapter around family. “Lorrie and I often said we won the baby lottery with our two daughters,” he wrote. “And we have learned what people say is actually true: that grandchildren are a game changer.” He added that the diagnosis “will not prevent me from looking forward to and appreciating our future.”

Lorrie described her husband in terms that echo how the world first came to know him. “Just as he was the same steady person before and after Flight 1549, he is the same steady person now, before and after this diagnosis,” she said. “Though the future is uncertain, we continue to live our lives, have hope, and find joy in the everyday.”

He has also spoken about why he chose to go public. His doctor, he said, described the disease as “the unwanted visitor at the door,” one that spares no age group. Sullenberger hopes that by sharing his experience, other families “living in the shadows with this disease will feel they too can step forward.”

His message to the public is practical. “If you have doubts, get tested,” he has urged, “because the sooner you act, the more options there are, the better the outcome is likely to be.”

For a man whose most famous act was staying calm when it mattered most, the approach is consistent: face the facts, lean on the people closest to you, and put your energy into what you can still do. As Sullenberger himself put it, “This new phase of my life has challenged what it means to be of service. And the answer is to speak up.”

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Are you a fan of Capt. Sully? Do you think his decision to speak openly and write letters for his granddaughter is one of the most inspiring responses to a hard diagnosis? Let us know in the comments and pass this on to your family, friends, and other fans out there!