Bruce O Sundlun

Former Democratic governor of Rhode Island whose tenure was marked by dramatic events both public and private, including a statewide banking crisis on his first day in office and a lawsuit — happily resolved — by a Midwestern teenager who said she was his daughter. A millionaire who made his fortune in telecommunications, Mr. Sundlun cut a larger-than-life figure that seemed inversely proportional to the size of his state. Mr. Sundlun served two terms as governor from 1991 to 1995, a period of deep economic recession in the region. On Jan. 1, 1991, less than an hour after being sworn in, Mr. Sundlun announced that he was closing 45 of the state’s banks and credit unions because their private insurer, the Rhode Island Share and Deposit Indemnity Corporation, had collapsed. The money was eventually returned through a taxpayer-financed bailout plan overseen by Mr. Sundlun. Bruce George Sundlun was born in Providence, R.I., on Jan. 19, 1920, into a Jewish family that had come from Lithuania. His parents, Walter Irving Sundlun and the former Jan Zelda Colitz, owned a jewelry store in Pawtucket, R.I. Mr. Sundlun earned a bachelor’s degree from Williams College and a law degree from Harvard. He was an assistant United States attorney in Washington before going into business. In the 1970s, Mr. Sundlun became president and chief executive of the Outlet Company, a Providence-based retail and broadcasting concern founded in the 19th century. Under his stewardship, the company shifted its focus exclusively to broadcasting. Renamed Outlet Communications, it eventually owned more than a dozen radio and television stations. In 2003, Mr. Sundlun’s daughter, by then television newscaster known as Kara Sundlun, was married in Newport, R.I. Her father, who was 83 at the time, walked her down the aisle. Ms. Sundlun is now an anchor at WFSB, a CBS affiliate in Hartford. Mr. Sundlun’s first four marriages — to Madeleine Schiffer Eisner, Pamela Soldwedel Barrett, Joyanne Carter and Marjorie Lee — ended in divorce. Besides his daughter, Kara, his survivors include his fifth wife, Soozie Dittelman; three sons from his first marriage, Tracy, Stuart and Peter; stepchildren; grandchildren; and stepgrandchildren. Born in Providence, Rhode Island, BRUCE G. SUNDLUN was a captain in the U.S. Army Air Corps from 1942 to 1945 and rose to the rank of colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. During his military career he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with Cluster, the Purple Heart, Chavalier, Legion l'Honneur (France), and the Prime Minister's Medal (Israel). He earned a bachelor's degree from Williams College in 1946 and a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1949. Sundlun served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney from 1949 to 1951 and as Special Assistant to the U.S. Attorney General in the Civil Division of the Justice Department from 1951 to 1954. For the following two decades he was in private practice in both Washington, DC and Providence. He went on to become President of Outlet Communications from 1976 to 1984 and the company's chair from 1984 to 1988. Sundlun was a member of the Providence School Board from 1984 to 1990, a delegate to the Rhode Island Constitutional Convention of 1986, and a delegate to numerous Democratic National Conventions. Soon after he had taken the oath of office as governor, the Rhode Island Share and Deposit Indemnity Corporation (RISDIC)—insurer of Rhode Island's chartered credit unions—failed, threatening a banking disaster. Sundlun quickly issued an executive order closing all institutions that had been insured by RISDIC, some of whose officials were ultimately implicated in the failure, and focused with other state officials on addressing fallout from the crisis. The resulting legislation established the Depositors Economic Protection Corporation to take over the assets of failed credit unions and to use the available proceeds, plus borrowed state money, to make the depositors whole. After leaving office, Sundlun went on to teach history at the University of Rhode Island.