| Bruce Sundlun | |
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71st Governor of Rhode Island
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| In office January 1, 1991 – January 7, 1995 |
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| Preceded by | Edward DiPrete |
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| Succeeded by | Lincoln Almond |
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| Born | January 19, 1920 Providence, Rhode Island, USA |
| Birth name | Bruce George Sundlun |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Madeleine Schiffer (Eisner) Gimbel (m. 1949, div. 1965), Pamela Barrett (m. 1966, div. 1974), Joyanne T. Carter (m. 1974, div. 1985), Marjorie Lee (m. 1985, div. 1999), Susan Dittelman (m. 2000) |
| Alma mater | Williams College, Harvard Law School |
| Profession | attorney, businessman |
| Religion | Jewish |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Service/branch | U.S. Army Air Corps |
| Years of service | 1942–1945 (active) 1945–1980 (reserves) |
| Rank | Captain (active); Colonel (Air Force Reserves) |
| Commands | B-17F Damn Yankee |
| Battles/wars | Eighth Air Force; 384th Bomb Group |
| Awards | Purple Heart, Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur, Distinguished Flying Cross, and Air Medal with oak leaf cluster |
Bruce Sundlun (born January 19, 1920) is a member of the Democratic Party and served as governor of Rhode Island from 1991 to 1995. He was Rhode Island's second Jewish governor, and the only Jewish governor in the United States during his two terms. In addition to politics, Sundlun had a varied career as a military pilot, federal attorney, practicing lawyer, corporate executive and university lecturer.
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Early life & education
Sundlun was born Bruce George Sundlun in Providence on January 19, 1920 to Walter Irving Sundlun and Jan Zelda (Colitz) Sundlun, and attended the Gordon School, Providence Classical High School and Tabor Academy. Upon finishing college classes begun in 1938, he received a B.A. from Williams College in 1946 after serving during World War II in the U.S. Army Air Corps flying B-17 bombers in the 8th Air Force in England. He attended Harvard Law School, graduating with a Juris Doctor degree in 1949.
Military service
While still in college, Bruce Sundlun volunteered for service in the U.S. Army Air Forces Aviation Cadet Program on December 8, 1941, at Westover Field. He was trained as a four-engine bomber pilot at Maxwell Field in Alabama, after basic flight training at the USAAC Southeast Training Center at Orangeburg, South Carolina, the Greenville Army Air Field at Greenville, Mississippi, and George Field in Lawrenceville, Illinois.
During overseas active duty beginning in June 1943, Sundlun served in the United States Army Air Corps as a B-17 Flying Fortress pilot in the England-based 384th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force at Grafton-Underwood Air Base. His plane the Damn Yankee[1] was shot down over Nazi-occupied Jabbeke, Belgium on 1 December 1943 after the plane was damaged by flak during the bombing of Solingen, Germany, on his 13th mission.[2] He was named an honorary citizen of Jabbeke in 2009 because of the fact that his actions saved countless lives in the town center of Jabbeke.[3] He and his copilot Lt. Andrew J. Boles banked the airplane hard to the right prior to bailing out, crashing it safely into a turnip field.
Over six months time cooperating with the French Resistance under the code name Salamander, he made several attempts to enter Spain near Biarritz, and later near Foix. But after a deciding that there was too much danger of capture in the Pyrenees, he made his way north-eastward across France and escaped into Switzerland on 5 March 1944 near Geneva.[4][5] Later, he was recruited by Allen Dulles working out of the U.S. Embassy in Berne to reenter France under the auspices of the Office of Strategic Services to act as a bombardment spotter for the Allied invasion of Marseilles in August 1944. After a brief service as a pilot of C-54 Skymaster cargo planes into Calcutta, and over "The Hump" to Kunming after VE Day, he ferried bombers (B-24 Liberators and B-29 Superfortresses) from the U.S. mainland to Tinian in the Mariana Islands and into other bases in the Pacific Theater of Operations.
In August, 1945 Sundlun attained the rank of captain, and left active service at the end of the war. He received the Purple Heart, Distinguished Flying Cross, and Air Medal with oak leaf cluster from the U.S. military, and in 1977 he received the Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur from the French government.[6] Despite ending his active service in 1945, he remained in the U.S. Air Force Reserves until he retired as a colonel in 1980.[7]
In September, 1948, Sundlun was commissioned to fly surplus B-17 bombers from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona to the newly created state of Israel to help form the Israeli Air Force. Later on 27 November 1979, he was awarded the Prime Minister's Medal by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin for his services to the State of Israel.[8]
Civilian career
From 1949 to 1972, Sundlun was a practicing attorney. In 1949, he was appointed by Attorney General J. Howard McGrath to serve as an assistant U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C. and later served as a special assistant to the U.S. Attorney General. From 1954 to 1972, he was in private law practice in both Washington, D.C. and Providence, with the law firms of Amran, Halm, and Sundlun, and Sundlun, Tirana and Scher.
Sundlun was active as a businessman from the 1960s through the 1990s. He was a pioneer in the charter business jet industry in 1964 by being one of the founding members of the board of directors of Executive Jet Aviation Corporation (EJA), along with Air Force generals Curtis E. LeMay, and Paul Tibbetts, and entertainers James Stewart and Arthur Godfrey among others, with retired Air Force Brigadier General Olbert F. ("Dick") Lassiter as president and chairman of the board.[9][10] Shortly after incorporation in Ohio, Sundlun arranged financing for EJA by engineering a stock purchase arrangement by American Contract Company of Wilmington, Delaware, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad. EJA initially began operations in 1964 with a fleet of ten Learjet 23 aircraft.[11] A few years afterward, a number of financial and legal improprieties were made by Lassiter including the purchase of Boeing 707 and Boeing 727 aircraft in violation of federal law prohibiting railroad ownership of large aircraft. An order by the Civil Aeronautics Board for EJA to either dispose of the large airplanes or for the Penn Central Railroad to divest of its $22 million investment led to the near collapse of EJA in 1970.[12] The company's creditors reacted by demanding the removal of Lassiter as president.[13] On July 2, 1970 Sundlun was installed as EJA president and he set out to rebuild the company. Under his leadership, the big jets were sold and he brought the company into the black. In the process, Sundlun, Robert Lee Scott, Jr. and Joseph Samuels ("Dody") Sinclair, grandson of one of the founders of The Outlet Company of Providence, borrowed $1.25 million to buy out Penn Central's interest in EJA. That purchase was completed in 1972 as part of the railroad's bankruptcy proceedings. When Paul Tibbetts became president of EJA in 1976, he said that the company's turn around, under Sundlun's guidance, was one of the nation's great business success stories of that decade.[14] By the end of Sundlun's presidency, EJA was doing business with approximately 250 contract flying customers and logging more than three million miles per year. Sundlun remained on the Board of Directors of EJA until it was sold in 1984 to a group of investors led by Richard Santulli.
From 1976 to 1988, Sundlun was president and chief executive officer of The Outlet Company, a department store and broadcast communications company in Providence. In close association with Dody Sinclair, he led the diversification of the corporation by expanding its television broadcast communications portfolio in the 1970s and 1980s. He presided over the corporation during the 1981 sale of the company's flagship Providence department store, sale of several radio stations, the merger of The Outlet Company with the Rockefeller Group in 1984, and the renaming of the company to Outlet Communications.[15] In 1986 after the Rockefeller family voted to not expand further into broadcast communications, a group of Outlet Communications executives, led by Sundlun, executed a leveraged buyout of the company.[16] Remaining as president throughout the entire merger and leveraged buyout sequence, Sundlun led the doubling of Outlet Communications holdings of licensed television broadcast stations from 4 to 8 across the country. And in his last three years as president between 1986 and 1988, he led the sale of the Outlet Communications stations in Orlando, San Antonio and Sacramento.
Sundlun ran twice but lost the Rhode Island governorship races in 1986 and 1988 but won it in his third try in 1990, defeating incumbent governor Edward D. DiPrete in a landslide victory 74%-26%. He won reelection in 1992, but in 1994, he failed to win the Democratic primary against Myrth York.
Only one hour after Sundlun's inauguration as governor on January 1, 1991, he announced the closure of 45 banks and credit unions in the state due to the collapse of their private insurer, the Rhode Island Share and Deposit Indemnity Corporation (RISDIC).[17] Resolution of the crisis was through Sundlun's creation of the Rhode Island Depositors Economic Protection Corporation (DEPCO) to manage the assets of closed banks and assure depositor repayment. Sundlun served as the chairman of the DEPCO Board of Directors. Despite considerable political resistance and the permanent closure of several institutions due to their failure to be granted FDIC or NCUA insurance, all depositor funds were repaid in full after two and a half years.[18]
During Sundlun's two terms as governor, he took particular interest in expanding Rhode Island as a destination for conventions and tourism. Noting that a shortage of hotels in Providence hindered the city's development as a convention destination, he urged the Rhode Island Convention Center Authority to facilitate the building of a hotel that eventually became The Westin Providence.[19][20] He created the Rhode Island Airport Corporation as an entity to revitalize and operate Rhode Island's state airports.[21][22] He was responsible for a complete redesign and rebuild of the passenger terminal and airport approach roads at T.F. Green Airport in Warwick.[23] The Bruce Sundlun Terminal at T.F. Green Airport is named in his honor.
Sundlun served as the chairman of the inaugural parade committee for President John F. Kennedy in 1960 and 1961, and was appointed by President Kennedy in October, 1962 as an incorporating member of the Communications Satellite Corporation (COMSAT), at which he served for 30 years as a director.[24] President Jimmy Carter appointed him as a member of the Board of Visitors of the United States Air Force Academy where he served two four-year terms,[25] and he has served a four year term as a director of the National Security Education Board, appointed by President Bill Clinton.[26] Sundlun was a delegate to Democratic National Convention in 1964, 1968, 1980, 1988, and 2000, as well as to the Rhode Island Constitutional Convention of 1985. He was a member of the Providence School Board from 1984 to 1990. And since 1996, Sundlun has been teaching political science and Rhode Island history at the University of Rhode Island as Governor in Residence.
Personal life
From the 1950s to the late-1980s, Sundlun maintained a residence at Salamander Farm, a 130-acre estate in The Plains, Virginia, which he named after his wartime identity with the French Underground.[27] He currently lives in Jamestown, Rhode Island with his wife Susan, a professional photographer and owner of East Greenwich Photo.[28] Sundlun has been married five times and has four children. He is the father of WFSB anchor Kara (Hewes) Sundlun and father-in-law to WFSB anchor Dennis House.[29] Sundlun also has 3 sons from his first marriage to Madeleine Gimbel: Tracy Walter Sundlun, Vice President of Elite Racing Inc., a promoter and manager of marathon races;[30] Stuart Arthur Sundlun, a financial services executive;[31] and Peter Bruce Sundlun, a commercial airline pilot with Delta Air Lines.
Media reports & popular controversy
In July 1993, suspecting that three raccoons on his 4-acre Newport estate were rabid, Sundlun shot them with a 12-gauge shotgun. Later the Providence Journal-Bulletin reported that the act was illegal according to state fish and game laws. The day of the publication, then Governor Sundlun turned himself in to the state police for arrest stating that ethics is the cornerstone of his administration. The state police reluctantly complied, so the case went to court and Sundlun pleaded guilty. But state officials and his own lawyer convinced Sundlun that what he had done was not a crime because his estate did not constitute a "compact area" and because the threat of rabies that year had led the state to waive restrictions on shooting raccoons. His guilty plea was withdrawn and all charges were dropped.[32]
In December 1997, while attending a Christmas party in East Greenwich, Sundlun attempted to purchase plastic forks from a CVS/pharmacy convenience store after closing hours. Police were called after Sundlun was noisily berating the teenaged employees for not complying with his requests. Sundlun eventually issued an apology to the workers and the pharmacy chain for his actions.[33]
On February 24, 2009, Sundlun was involved in a dispute over place in line at an East Greenwich branch of Citizens Bank. Sundlun was pushed to the ground by Charles Machado (59) of Warwick. Sundlun hit his head and was stunned, but he declined to press charges against Machado.[34]
In recent years, Sundlun had numerous traffic accidents and traffic violations, leading two Rhode Island police departments, North Kingstown in 2007 and Jamestown in 2009, to ask the state Department of Motor Vehicles to evaluate Sundlun's ability to drive. In 2008, he was admonished by University of Rhode Island authorities about his driving on the campus after separate incidents in which he drove on the sidewalk, nearly ran over a professor who walks with a cane, and allegedly bumped a parked car. Sundlun passed the first driving test which was the result of the North Kingstown request. On April 30, 2009, Sundlun voluntarily surrendered his license.[35][36]
On June 4, 2009, Sundlun was on a WPRO radio talk show in which he claimed that he flew a private plane owned by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Votolato (79) from T.F. Green Airport to Hartford. Within days, Judge Votolato and Sundlun had issued a statement that the judge was in fact in full control of the aircraft. While Votolato's pilot's license had been maintained up to date, Sundlun's commercial pilot's license had expired in the late 1970s.[37]
Notes
- ^ "Assault on Damn Yankee by Domenic DeNardo". http://www.aviationarthangar.com/avarthaasond.html. Retrieved 30 April 2009.
- ^ "384 Bomb Group Mission Log, December 1, 1943". http://memories.384thbombgroup.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=92:misison039&catid=57:december1943missions&Itemid=109. Retrieved 28 April-2009.
- ^ "Bruce Sundlun Citizen of Jabbeke (in Dutch), by Henrick Bogaert". Hendrik Bogaert Blog 27 April 2009. http://www.hendrikbogaert.be/blog/p/detail/bruce-sundlun-ereburger-jabbeke. Retrieved 11 May 2009.
- ^ "Bruce at 86: A different kind of man". Providence Journal (2006). http://www.projo.com/extra/2006/sundlun/. Retrieved 1 May 2009.
- ^ "Bruce Sundlun: World War II gave me indelibible lesson in separation of church and state". Providence Journal 3 Dec 2009. http://www.projo.com/opinion/contributors/content/CT_sundlun3_12-03-09_SPGJDBI_v10.3f8a03b.html. Retrieved 3 Dec 2009.
- ^ "Rhode Island State Senate Resolution 2009-S-0899". http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/BillText/BillText09/SenateText09/S0899.htm. Retrieved 11 May 2009.
- ^ "Rhode Island Governor Bruce G. Sundlun". National Association of Governors. http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.29fab9fb4add37305ddcbeeb501010a0/?vgnextoid=b717ae3effb81010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD. Retrieved 3 June-2009.
- ^ "Program for presentation of Israel's Prime Minister's Medal to Sundlun, 11/27/79.". Fitzhugh Green Papers, Box 2 Folder 47, Georgetown University Special Collections. http://library.georgetown.edu/dept/speccoll/fl/f80%7D2.htm. Retrieved 3 June-2009.
- ^ p. 58 in: U.S. Congress, House Committee on Banking and Currency. (1972). The Penn Central Failure and the Role of Financial Institutions. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 336pp.Google Books result
- ^ "Homage to Dick Lassiter". International Air Bahama Crew Association. http://www.iabcrew.com/dicklassiter.html. Retrieved 10 July 2009.
- ^ "Netjets History". http://www.netjets.com/about_netjets/timeline.asp. Retrieved 5 June-2009.
- ^ "Sundlun v. Executive Jet Aviation, Inc., 273 A.2d 282 (Del. Ch., 1970)". Chancery court of Delaware, Newcastle county. http://content.lawyerlinks.com/library/sec/cases/pdfs/273_a2d_282.pdf. Retrieved 24 June-2009.
- ^ p. 176 in: Daughen, Joseph R. and Peter Binzen. (1999). The Wreck of the Penn Central (2nd ed), Beard Books, Frederick, MD. ISBN 9781893122086
- ^ "Paul Tibbets: A Rendezvous with History by Di Freeze". Airport Journals. http://www.airportjournals.com/Display.cfm?varID=0306003. Retrieved 5 June-2009.
- ^ "Outlet Company Records". Rhode Island Historical Society. http://www.rihs.org/mssinv/Mss903.htm. Retrieved 14 June-2009.
- ^ "Reverse LBO's Bring Riches By Leslie Wayne". New York Times, April 23, 1987. http://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/23/business/reverse-lbo-s-bring-riches.html. Retrieved 14 June-2009.
- ^ "Banking Crisis Still Grips Rhode Island 2 January 1992". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/02/us/banking-crisis-still-grips-rhode-island.html. Retrieved 30 April-2009.
- ^ "Sundlun DEPCO Papers". http://www.uri.edu/library/special_collections/political_papers/sundlun/seriesV.html. Retrieved 30 April 2009.
- ^ "Rhode Island Convention Center Authority". http://www.riconvention.com/Authority/.
- ^ Sundlun, B., 1997. Growing Rhode Island: big projects have been a big help. Providence Journal-Bulletin November 16, p. D.14
- ^ "Rhode Island Airport Corporation". http://www.pvdairport.com/main.aspx?sec_id=15. Retrieved 30 April-2009.
- ^ "Rhode Island Airport Corporation authorizing legislation GLRI 1-2-7.1". Rhode Island General Assembly. http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/Statutes/TITLE1/1-2/1-2-7.1.HTM. Retrieved 22 May 2009.
- ^ "David Preston: Bruce Sundlun: A model of strong leadership January 25, 2009". Providence Journal. http://www.projo.com/opinion/contributors/content/CT_preston25_01-25-09_SACVLK8_v20.4281085.html. Retrieved 30 April-2009.
- ^ "Stockholders Back COMSAT Management". St. Petersburg Times, September 18, 1964. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=888&dat=19640918&id=bxYOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=AH0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6593,4433191. Retrieved 17 May 2009.
- ^ "John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters, The American Presidency Project [online]". Santa Barbara, CA: University of California. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=30552. Retrieved 14 June-2009.
- ^ "Three New Inductees to the URI College of Business Hall of Fame". University of Rhode Island. http://www.uri.edu/news/releases/?id=3036. Retrieved 10 May 2009.
- ^ "Salamander Farm Story". Sheila Crump Johnson Salamander Resort and Spa. http://www.salamanderhospitality.com/story.php. Retrieved 10 July 2009.
- ^ "About Soozie Sundlun". East Greenwich Photo. http://www.egphoto.com/about_soozie.php. Retrieved 3 June-2009.
- ^ "Marriages: Kara Sundlun and Dennis House". Milford Daily News, 15 November 2003. http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x1874149113. Retrieved 9 July 2009.
- ^ "Marathon Brings Out 20,000 Runners – and An Economic Boost". San Diego Business Journal May 31, 2004. http://www.allbusiness.com/trade-development/economic-development-tourism/10630232-1.html. Retrieved 22 August 2009.
- ^ "Profile: Stuart A. Sundlun". Forbes.com. http://people.forbes.com/profile/stuart-a-sundlun/7745. Retrieved 22 August 2009.
- ^ "A Governor Shoots, But His Guilty Plea Is Wide of the Mark". New York Times October 3, 1993. http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/03/us/a-governor-shoots-but-his-guilty-plea-is-wide-of-the-mark.html. Retrieved 26 May 2009.
- ^ "Apology offered to CVS workers". Boston Globe, December 17, 1997. http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-8447520.html. Retrieved 26 May 2009.
- ^ "Sundlun involved in altercation at bank". WJAR-10 Television February 24, 2009. http://www.turnto10.com/jar/news/local/article/former_governor_involved_in_bank_incident/10552/. Retrieved 26 May 2009.
- ^ "State DMV asked to evaluate Sundlun’s ability to drive". Providence Journal. 29 April 2009. http://www.projo.com/news/content/sundlun_drives_04-29-09_FVE6OQL_v23.36a84bc.html. Retrieved 30 April-2009.
- ^ "Former Gov. Bruce Sundlun turns in license. By Amanda Milkovits". Providence Journal 1 May 2009. http://www.projo.com/news/content/sundlun_stops_driving_05-01-09_NVE7N3B_v13.37886ab.html. Retrieved 2 May 2009.
- ^ "Sundlun says now he didn’t fly judge’s plane to Hartford". Providence Journal June 6, 2009. http://www.projo.com/news/content/sundlun_no_controls_06-06-09_UOEKNJQ_v6.336872a.html. Retrieved 11 June-2009.
See also
External links
- Index of the Bruce Sundlun Papers at the University of Rhode Island
- Providence Journal Profile of Bruce Sundlun by G. Wayne Miller
- RI House of Representatives Resolution Honoring Bruce Sundlun on his 88th Birthday
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by Edward D. DiPrete |
Governor of Rhode Island 1991–1995 |
Succeeded by Lincoln Almond |
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