41 Facts About Bruce Sundlun

Bruce George Sundlun was an American businessman, politician and member of the Democratic Party who served as 71st governor of Rhode Island between 1991 and 1995.

Bruce Sundlun was Rhode Island's second Jewish governor, and the only Jewish governor in the United States during his two terms.

Bruce Sundlun attended the Gordon School, Classical High School and the Tabor Academy.

Bruce Sundlun attended Harvard Law School, graduating with an LL.

Bruce Sundlun 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.

Bruce Sundlun was able to bank the airplane hard to the left before bailing out, to avoid crashing into the town center.

Bruce Sundlun made his way across Belgium and France by stealing bicycles in the morning near the market centers of small towns and seeking aid from local Catholic priests in the evening.

Once Bruce Sundlun entered Switzerland he turned himself in to Swiss authorities and was interned along with other Allied military officers at a hotel in Davos.

Bruce Sundlun received the Purple Heart, Distinguished Flying Cross, and Air Medal with two oak leaf clusters from the US military, and in 1977 he received the Chevalier of the Legion d'honneur from the French government.

In September 1948 Bruce Sundlun flew 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.

Bruce Sundlun was active as a businessman from the 1960s through the 1990s.

Bruce Sundlun was a pioneer in the jet charter industry in 1964 by being one of the founding members on the board of directors of Executive Jet Aviation, along with Air Force generals Curtis E LeMay and Paul Tibbetts, and entertainers James Stewart and Arthur Godfrey, with retired Air Force Brigadier General Olbert F "Dick" Lassiter as president and chairman of the board.

Shortly after incorporation in Ohio, Bruce Sundlun arranged financing for EJA by engineering a stock purchase by American Contract Company of Wilmington, Delaware, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

On July 2,1970, Bruce Sundlun was installed as EJA president, and he set out to rebuild the company.

When Paul Tibbetts became president of EJA in 1976, he said the company's turnaround, under Bruce Sundlun's guidance, was one of the nation's great business success stories of that decade.

Bruce Sundlun remained on the board of directors of EJA until it was sold in 1984 to a group of investors led by Richard Santulli.

Bruce Sundlun is still in business with the name of NetJets as one of the holdings of Berkshire Hathaway.

From 1976 to 1988, Bruce Sundlun was president and chief executive officer of The Outlet Company, a department store and broadcast communications company in Providence.

Bruce Sundlun 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.

Bruce Sundlun won reelection in 1992, but in 1994, he failed to win the Democratic primary against Myrth York, who was defeated in the general election.

Bruce Sundlun served as the chairman of the DEPCO board of directors and was primarily aided by his director of policy Sheldon Whitehouse.

Bruce Sundlun created the Rhode Island Airport Corporation as an entity to revitalize and operate Rhode Island's state airports, and he was responsible for a complete redesign and rebuild of the passenger terminal and airport approach roads at T F Green Airport in Warwick.

Bruce Sundlun was responsible for building the Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge, and the Jamestown Expressway, as well as arranging the financing of Providence Place Mall, and the relocation of the Woonasquatucket River to permit the construction of Waterplace Park and the Citizens Bank Building in downtown Providence.

Bruce Sundlun was the last Rhode Island governor to be elected to a two-year term, as his successor, Lincoln Almond was the first governor to be elected to a four-year term, which Rhode Island enacted in 1994.

Bruce Sundlun served a four-year term as a director of the National Security Education Board, appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1993.

Bruce 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.

Bruce Sundlun was a member of the Providence School Board from 1984 to 1990.

Bruce Sundlun was the father of WFSB news anchor Kara Sundlun and father-in-law to Dennis House.

However, Bruce Sundlun accepted Kara Hewes fully as his daughter assuring that her college education was fully financed.

Bruce Sundlun had three sons from his first marriage :.

Bruce Sundlun died on July 21,2011, aged 91, at his home in Jamestown, Rhode Island.

Bruce Sundlun was accorded full state and military honors prior to and at his funeral and burial on July 24,2011.

Bruce Sundlun was buried at Temple Beth El Cemetery in Providence, Rhode Island.

In July 1993, when he thought three raccoons on his 4-acre estate in Newport were rabid, Bruce Sundlun shot at them with a 12-gauge shotgun.

The day of the publication, Bruce Sundlun turned himself in to the state police for arrest stating that ethics was the cornerstone of his administration.

In December 1997, in East Greenwich, Bruce Sundlun attempted to purchase some plastic forks after hours from a nearby CVS Pharmacy for a Christmas party he was attending.

Bruce Sundlun eventually issued an apology to the employees and the pharmacy chain for his actions.

On February 24,2009, Bruce Sundlun was involved in a dispute over his place in line at a branch of Citizens Bank in East Greenwich.

Bruce Sundlun was pushed to the ground by Charles Machado, 59, of Warwick.

Bruce Sundlun hit his head and was stunned, but he declined to press charges against Machado.

Bruce Sundlun passed the first driving test which was the result of the North Kingstown request.