Ellsworth F. Bunker (May 11, 1894[1] – September 27, 1984)[2] was an American businessman and diplomat (including being the ambassador to Argentina, Italy, India, Nepal and South Vietnam). He is perhaps best known for being a
hawk on the war in
Vietnam and Southeast Asia during the 1960s and 1970s. As of February 2024[update], Bunker is one of only two people to have been awarded the
Presidential Medal of Freedom twice, and the only person to receive both awards With Distinction.
Early life and education
Born in
Yonkers, New York, he was the eldest of three children of George Raymond Bunker and Jeanie Polhemus (née Cobb), whose family descended from prominent early Dutch settlers including the Evertson family (of the
Great Nine Partners) and the
Schuyler family. His great-grandmother Eliza Brodhead Polhemus née Heyer was a niece of
Stephen Whitney, reputedly the wealthiest American of his time after
John Jacob Astor, while her first cousin Charles Suydam was the brother-in-law of Astor's grandson
William Backhouse Astor Jr. and his wife
Caroline Schermerhorn Astor.[1][3][4]
Bunker's father was one of the founders and chairman of the board of National Sugar Refining Company. His younger brother, Arthur Hugh Bunker (July 29, 1895 – May 19, 1964), was also a noted businessman, chairman of the executive committee of the
War Production Board (1941–1945) during World War II, and president and then board chairman of American Metal Climax (AMAX). He was married to actress and writer
Isabel Leighton.[3][5] His first cousin Dorothy Penrose Cobb was married to historian
Frederick Lewis Allen.[citation needed]
Ellsworth Bunker studied to be a
lawyer, and graduated from
Yale University with the class of 1916.[1] During World War II he served as chairman of the War Production Board's cane sugar advisory committee.[6]
Career
Bunker first worked in his father's company, National Sugar Refining Company,[1] eventually becoming the company's president, succeeding Horace Havemeyer Sr., in 1942. He retired as an active executive in 1951 and purchased a 600-acre dairy farm in
Putney, Vermont.[7] He remained a member of the board of National Sugar until 1966.[8]
He was awarded the
Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction twice—the first time by
John F. Kennedy in 1963 (though the ceremony took place during
Lyndon B Johnson's term) and the second time by
Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967. He is one of only two persons (the other being
Colin Powell) who received the award twice, and the only person to receive it both times with distinction.
Personal life
Bunker married a neighbor, Harriet Allen Butler, daughter of Ellen Mudge and George Prentiss Butler, in
Yonkers, New York on April 24, 1920.[19] Harriet had made friends with Bunkers' sister Katherine when the two girls attended
Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut.[20] They had three children, John Birkbeck, Samuel Emmet, and Ellen Mudge.[21] She died in 1964.[22]
Bunker died on his dairy farm in
Putney, Vermont.[26] The funeral was attended by his good friend and neighbor former senator
George Aiken and former president
Richard M. Nixon. Aiken died two months later.[27]
His middle child, John Birkbeck Bunker (March 8, 1926 – May 26, 2005), a first lieutenant in World War II, died of cancer at his home in
Wheatland, Wyoming at age 79.[28][29][30]
In a 1978 Doonesbury cartoon, a New York tailor fitting
Phred with a very old-fashioned suit says "Ellsworth Bunker used to get everything from me".
Bunker is mentioned in
Allen Ginsberg's poem "September on Jessore Road", which includes the line "Where is Ambassador Bunker today? Are his
Helios machine gunning children at play?"[31]
In chapter 7 of
John Irving's 1989 novel A Prayer for Owen Meany: "And whom did Ellsworth Bunker replace? Remember that? Of course you don't!"