Samuel Bunker

Inducted: 1992

Sam Bunker's long career with the Ford Foundation and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) has led him to the far corners of he world. Throughout his many years of service to the international cooperative community, Bunker is credited with applying a consistent and reliable wisdom, thoughtfulness and practicality to all of his work. In 1990, he retired after 12 years as administrator of the NRECA'S International Programs Division. During his tenure, the International Programs Division achieved a decade-long, $40 million project to provide electricity to more than three million people in Bangladesh, a $25 million Central American initiative for new and innovative approaches to rural electrification, and creation of the NRECA International Foundation to help the poor and needy gain electric service.

Bunker’s commitment to the cooperative movement and his sincere personal desire to help poor, rural populations was also reflected in his exemplary leadership on the boards of several cooperative and international development organizations. He served on the board of CARE as vice chairman, chairman of the Cooperative Housing Foundation, secretary of CARE International, president of the Philippine-American Foundation, and was a director of Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance. Bunker brings to each of his official roles a sound, experienced, and worldly perspective on the vital role of cooperatives in meeting the needs of rural communities worldwide.