Publication: A Princeton Companion
Bunn, B[enjamin] Franklin '07 (1875-1971) probably knew, and was known by, more members of the University than any other Princetonian in this century. His popularity on the campus carried over into the community at large: in his time no citizen was better known than he.
As manager of the University Store 1908-1947, he was universally appreciated as the dispenser of the store's annual rebate checks, which he personally handed out to waiting queues several weeks before Christmas. For many years he served as a timer at football, basketball, track, and swimming contests. For half a century he was graduate treasurer of the Triangle Club and accompanied the club on its annual Christmas trip. For almost as long he was graduate treasurer of the Daily Princetonian, the Princeton Tiger, and a number of other student enterprises. For a score of years he was manager of the McCarter Theatre. The seniors summed it up in their Faculty Song:
``Oh, Bacon Bunn, you crafty guy,
Your finger is in every pie;
But once a year you do relent,
And give us back our ten per cent.''
The nickname ``Bacon Bunn'' came from a popular student snack -- crisp bacon in a roll -- sold by the Jigger Man. Once during the depression of the 1930s Bunn reduced the store's rebate to eight percent but managed to follow his customary practice of trading in his Buick every other year, as the seniors noted in another version of his verse in the Faculty Song:
``Oh, Bacon Bunn, you went too far,
In buying that new Buick car.
Oh, Bacon, you're a clever gent,
But where's our other two percent?''
A farmer's son from Chester County, Pennsylvania, whose schooling had been interrupted by responsibilities at home, Bunn entered Phillips Exeter Academy when he was 25 and Princeton three years later at 28. He worked his way through Exeter by taking care of the headmaster's furnace, at Princeton by working in a student-managed bookstore. On graduation in 1907 he became a clerk in the recently founded University Store and in 1908 became its manager.
He had a finger in every pie in the Princeton community, too. He was a founder and officer of the University Laundry and the Princeton Savings and Loan Association, and a director of the Princeton Water Company. He was mayor of Princeton Borough and later of Princeton Township, the only person ever to occupy both offices. For thirty years he was president of the trustees of the First Presbyterian Church and helped select five of its pastors. He was a director of the United Fund, the Princeton Hospital, the Chamber of Commerce, and a trustee of the Westminster Choir College.
Bunn was chairman of a citizens' committee that raised funds for the purchase of a ceremonial mace presented to the University at the 200th anniversary of the opening of Nassau Hall -- a symbol of the long and close relationship of the University to the Princeton community. In 1963 the Princeton Chamber of Commerce gave him a ``man of the years'' award and in 1965 the Princeton Y.M.C.A. established an award in his name, gi~ven annually for outstanding community service. Bunn's name is perpetuated in the University by a basketball award established in 1931 and by a prize for sophomores on the business staff of the Daily Princetonian set up by the senior business board in 1964.
At the University's Bicentennial in 1947, when Bunn received an honorary degree of Master of Arts, he was cited as follows:
``Faithful steward for forty years of the many trusts committed to him by the Princeton community, untiring ally of the University administration and faculty under three presidents; counselor and friend of generations of undergraduates, his sturdy loyalty is an inspiration to all Princeton men.''
From Alexander Leitch, A Princeton Companion, copyright Princeton University Press (1978).