One of the Bunker Family Association’s founders and its first president was Colonel Paul Bunker. He was also the first Bunker to call West Point his Alma Mater, graduating in 1903. Another six Bunkers would follow in the long, gray line, if we include General Matthew Bunker Ridgway; his mother was Ruth Starbuck, a 9th generation, Nantucket descendent. Colonel Paul’s two sons, Paul D., Jr. ’32 and William Beehler ’34 marched on Guard Duty at “The Point,” as did his future son-in-law, Thompson B. Maury, III ’34; he married Paul’s only daughter Landon Priscillia.
Howard Graham Bunker ’28, BFA member Robert M. Bunker ’58 and David R. Bunker ’98 followed in the footsteps of George Armstrong Custer, Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee and Dwight Eisenhower, with their pledge of “Duty, Honor, Country.”
As part of the BFA’s 93rd reunion-to be held June 14-17 in Newark, New Jersey-members will visit the United States Military Academy on June 15, pay homage to all her cadets and especially to Colonel Paul, by visiting his final resting-place in the Bunker family plot. While touring the museum, the story of the Colonel and the Corregidor flag remnant will be told once more when we view the tattered WW II artifact. Paul hid it from his capturers, while he was held in a Japanese POW camp on Formosa Island. The reunion will also include a visit to the Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island.
For more details, visit www.bunkerfamilyassn.org/reunion.html.
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