Hartford Business Journal Special Editions

OCTOBER 2, 2017 • HARTFORD BUSINESS JOURNAL | 69 solicitor and donor. As related in a story in the Connecticut Jewish Ledger, Suisman said in an oral history, "My father was not afraid to ask anybody for money, and he did over the years and he was certainly one of the best solicitors around. I learned from him that the first thing you have to do is give money yourself." Suisman served as chairman of the board of The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford, the Hartford Endowment Fund for Public Giving and the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Hartford. He also served on the boards of The Hartford Stage Company, Connecticut General, Connecticut Bank and Trust and Hartford Hospital. Harry Gray Gray built a Connecticut aircraft company into United Technologies Corp. — one of the world's richest conglomerates. His corporate and philanthropic fingerprints can be seen all over Greater Hartford. Gray, who became president of what was then United Aircraft Corp. in 1971, served as chairman and CEO from 1972 to 1986. Hartford- based UTC, which is the parent of jet-engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney, Otis elevator and other businesses, credits Gray for leading it from a $2 billion defense company to the diversified conglomerate it has become. In retirement, Gray and his wife Helen contributed to organizations such as Hartford Hospital, University of Hartford, University of Connecticut, University of Illinois, Mark Twain House in Hartford and other organizations. According to Stephen Miller's remembrance article published in the Wall Street Journal on July 10, 2009 (two days after Gray died), he was "a merger artist who resented making just one deal at a time." Gray was both admired and feared as "The Grand Acquisitor." John Alsop Alsop's vocation was insurance but his avocation was Republican politics on both the state and national level. He died in 2000 at age 84. Alsop retired in 1980 after 27 years as chief executive of Covenant Insurance Mutual Insurance Co. in Hartford — the firm created by his father in the 1920s. Along with former Aetna chairman John Filer and DeRoy ``Pete'' Thomas of ITT Hartford, Alsop was one of the key organizers of the Insurance Association of Connecticut, which eventually became a strong lobbying force at the state Capitol on insurance issues. Alsop had a long political pedigree as the grandson of a Democrat lieutenant governor and the grandnephew of Republican President Theodore Roosevelt. He also unsuccessfully ran for governor in 1962 against John Dempsey. A two-term state legislator, Alsop helped push through three desegregation bills submitted by the Connecticut NAACP at the end of the 1949 legislative session. Those measures outlawed racial discrimination in the National Guard, public accommodations and public-housing projects. George Bahamonde Bahamonde had been president and CEO of United Way of the Capital Area from 1994 to 2006 when he passed away suddenly while on vacation. A career United Way executive with experience throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico, he helped lead the local United Way through 30 percent growth in his 12- year tenure. A native of Cuba who moved with his family to Bridgeport when he was 11, Bahamonde had more than two decades of experience with the United Way before he came to Hartford, according to his obituary. He previously worked in leadership as the senior vice president with the United Way of Greater Los Angeles, the president and chief professional officer of United Way of Puerto Rico, and the executive director of the United Way in Portland, Maine. Carlyle "Hap" Barnes "Hap" Barnes, which he claimed stood for "Haphazard," was the longtime president and CEO of Associated Spring Corp. in Bristol. A 10th generation descendant of the Barnes clan in Bristol, he was part of a family known for its industrial prowess. He died in 2012 at age 87. In 1948, he joined Associated Spring Corp. as a staff assistant in the Bristol division, rising to general manager there in 1951, when he was also elected to the board of directors. He took over as president in 1953 and was elected chairman and CEO in 1964 until his retirement in 1994. Barnes served on many boards of directors and in 1999 he received the John Filer Award for Creative Leadership in Philanthropy from the Connecticut Council for Philanthropy. He was a director with Travelers Insurance Co., Burndy Corp., Kaman Corp., Connecticut Light & Power and The United Bank and Trust Co. He was president of The Manufacturing Association of CT, president of The Connecticut Expenditures Council and Connecticut chairman of The Newcomen Society. Donald W. Davis In a New York Times obituary, Davis was remembered for transforming Stanley Works from "a tradition-bound New England tool manufacturer into an international pioneer in the do-it-yourself hardware business." Davis died in 2010 at age 89 from lymphoma, a form of cancer he had been successfully treated for 30 years earlier. At the relatively young age of 44, Davis became president and CEO of Stanley Works after already having worked for the company for 18 years. During his time at the top, he added product lines, overhauled its marketing operations (and even wrote its well-known slogan "Stanley Helps You Do Things Right"), bought 25 other tool manufacturers and listed the company on the New York Stock Exchange, according to the obituary. Davis was instrumental in keeping the company headquartered in New Britain when others wanted to see it relocated. He retired in 1987. John H. Filer Filer was a man renowned as both a leading corporate citizen and philanthropist at the time of his death in Sept. 1994. He was chairman of Aetna from 1972 to 1984 at a time of immense growth for the insurer. According to his obituary in the New York Times, revenue more than tripled during his tenure from $11 billion in assets to $40 billion and grew to become the nation's largest shareholder-owned insurance company. Filer helped change the face of downtown Hartford significantly. Together with the city, Aetna developed the Hartford Civic Center in 1975. The insurance giant was also a lead investor in the World Hockey Association's New England Whalers when they moved here from Boston in 1974. (The team would eventually become the Hartford Whalers in 1979 when the WHA and NHL merged.) Filer, who served on national commissions for presidents Ford and Carter, was chairman of the National Commission on Private Philanthropy and Public Need, a group of public officials and business executives concerned about the future of philanthropy. Bernard "Bernie" Fox Fox was retired as chairman of Northeast Utilities when lung cancer ended his life in Nov. 2001 at the age of 59. Fox was named president and chief operating and financial officer of the utility in 1987. Fox began his 32-year career with Northeast Utilities as a cadet engineer at Hartford Electric Light Company. He became vice president and general manager of the gas division in 1981 and was promoted to chief financial officer in 1983. He added the title of CEO in 1993. He became chairman in 1995, People In Memoriam

• Cover