In Memoriam: J. Bruce Llewellyn

J. Bruce Llewellyn was born on July 16, 1927, in New York, NY, to Charles and Vanessa Llewellyn, Jamaican immigrants. His parents moved the family to White Plains and he went straight from graduating White Plains High School to enlisting in the Army. He served four years and was honorably discharged after obtaining the rank of second lieutenant.

With the help of the G.I. Bill, he went on to earn a B.S. from the City College of New York. Using the lessons of hard work and perseverance his parents instilled in him, he earned his degree while at the same time operating a small liquor store in Harlem. That was the beginning of his formal education and the launch of his entrepreneurial career. He went on to attend Columbia, NYU and finally to earn a law degree from New York Law School in 1960.

After graduation, Mr. Llewellyn first went into the New York County District Attorney’s office and very quickly into practice at Evans, Berger, & Llewellyn in New York. Realizing he had another calling, and wanting to try his hand at public service, he became the Regional Director of the Small Business Development Corporation, the Deputy Commissioner of the NYC Housing and Development Administration and the Executive Director of the Upper Manhattan Small Business Development Corporation. Disappointed in the slowness of bureaucratic government and determined to be “in charge” of his own future, Mr. Llewellyn jumped at the first chance to buy his own business. The opportunity came along in the form of Fedco Foods.

Fedco Foods, a 10-store chain of supermarkets, would prove to be just the right fit for Bruce. He bought the business in 1969 and expanded it from 10 stores to 29 stores that covered Harlem and the South Bronx. It would become one of the largest minority businesses in the US.

J. Bruce Llewellyn’s career history could be viewed as a virtual microcosm of twentieth-century achievement. He traveled an unconventional path to become the owner of his own business, spent nearly three decades in the public-service sector and built not one but several major successful companies. By 1985, having sold Fedco Foods and partnered with Julius Erving, he became the Chairman, CEO and majority owner of Philadelphia Coca Cola Bottling Co. The company made history when it went from being the 15th largest bottler in the country to being the fourth largest and expanded its territory to include the state of Delaware. He had already bought and sold the ABC-TV affiliate (WKBW) in Buffalo, New York and then in 1986 negotiated the purchase of the New York Times Cable business leaving him the major shareholder in one of the largest cable business in the country. He had become one of the most successful African American entrepreneurs of his generation and paved the way for many to follow.

He served on the board of American Can, Primerica, JP Morgan Chase, Chase, Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co., Adolph Coors Co. and Essence Communications.

His public service career was just as distinguished. President Jimmy Carter tapped him to serve as the President of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation requiring confirmation by the United States Senate. He served with the rank of Ambassador for the President’s full term in office and left to join the prestigious law firm of Dickstein, Shapiro & Marin in Washington, DC. He was again tapped by the government to serve on the Russia Fund (Fund for Large Enterprise), the US Small Business Administration Advisory Council on Small Business and President Bill Clinton’s Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiation.

He was famous for saying  “education and business are the emancipators of a group of people.”  Because of his strong feelings that there needed to be more money available to graduate students in areas that would support business careers, he established a million-dollar scholarship program in the Graduate School of the City University of New York specifically for students in business, computer science and related fields. He served on the board of Graduate Center of the City University of New York and the United Negro College Fund.

Mr. Llewellyn received ten honorary doctorate degrees including ones from City College, New York Law School, and Howard University.

He received numerous awards including The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training International Business Leadership Award, The Business Policy Review Council Corporate Pioneer Award, The 100 Black Men Founders Award, Northside Center’s Mamie Award and the annual Associated Black Charities Black History Makers Award.

In 1998 Mr. Llewellyn, had double open-heart surgery. The resultant complications eventually caused his kidneys to fail. He was placed on dialysis in 2006 and died of renal failure. He was eighty-two years old. He is survived by his wife, Shahara Ahmad-Llewellyn, his daughters, Kristen Lisa Llewellyn, Alexandra Clancy, Jaylaan Ahmad-Llewellyn, his sister,  and his granddaughter.

75th birthday celebration

Merriment was had by everyone, at the Metropolitan Club in New York City in 2002.

J. Bruce Llewellyn in pictures

A world traveler

Fun

Mt. Kenya

Mt. Kenya

The Associated Press obituary

Associated Press Archive

April 16, 2010
Pioneering black businessman Llewellyn dies at 82
Author: CRISTIAN SALAZAR; Associated Press Writer
Dateline: NEW YORK
Index Terms:
State or Regional News
Article Text:
J. Bruce Llewellyn, who was once called an empire-building dealmaker and a savvy entrepreneur and forged a legacy to become one of the country’s most renowned and wealthy black businessmen, has died. He was 82.
His widow, Shahara Ahmad-Llewellyn, said Friday her husband was not a “monolithic businessman.”
“He was 6-foot-6, a big guy who at the drop of a hat would tell you a story and at the end of it you would be laughing so hard your sides would hurt,” she said in a phone interview. “It wasn’t just about the millions of dollars. He was a great guy.”
Llewellyn died April 7 in Manhattan at an apartment near the NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center where he was undergoing treatment, she said. The cause of death was renal failure.
Llewellyn was a legend in black business but had also marked decades in public service, including having taken on jobs offered by Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, and as an advocate for higher education for minorities.
Early on, he left a career in government to pursue his entrepreneurial instincts with a competitiveness that was hinted at in many of his comments about business.
“My father used to tell me that this is a great country with great opportunity but that you’re going to have to work twice as hard to get half as much,” he told Black Enterprise magazine in a 1986 profile in which he was called “The Boss” and “The Deal Maker.”
He said he followed that advice throughout his career.
He became so well-known for his business acumen that he was asked in the 1970s by Jackie Robinson, a friend and founder of the Freedom National Bank in Harlem — committed to lending to black-owned businesses and homeowners — to help stabilize the foundering financial institution. Llewellyn joined its board.
His streak of success in business began in 1969, when he bought a 10-store chain of supermarkets and expanded it to 29 stores throughout Harlem and the South Bronx, making it one of the largest minority-owned businesses in the country. He went on to own a television station, WKBW-TV, in Buffalo, N.Y., an ABC affiliate, which he later sold, and to become a shareholder in a New York cable business.
But he was most successful in the bottling business.
In 1985, after selling the supermarket chain, he partnered with other black entrepreneurs and became the majority owner of Philadelphia Coca-Cola Bottling Co., which became the nation’s fourth-largest Coke bottler in the country under his leadership and among the nation’s largest African-American-owned businesses.
By the time he reached a deal to sell the company, it employed 1,200 people and had $540 million in annual revenue.
James Bruce Llewellyn was born on July 16, 1927, in Harlem to Jamaican immigrants.
At a young age, his parents moved the family to White Plains, a northern middle-class suburb of New York City that was a mostly white community at the time. After graduating high school, he served in the U.S. Army, and attended college on the GI. Bill and earned a law degree from New York Law School in 1960.
Besides his wife, he is survived by three daughters, a sister and a granddaughter.