Winfield Dunn

Bryant Winfield Culberson Dunn (born July 1, 1927) is an American businessman and politician who served as the 43rd governor of Tennessee from 1971 to 1975.

He was the state's first Republican governor in fifty years.

In 1944, during World War II, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, and served as a pharmacists' mate in the Asia-Pacific Theatre.

He subsequently served as a reserve lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force.

Dunn graduated with a B.B.A. from the University of Mississippi in 1950.

That same year, he married Betty Prichard, the daughter of a Memphis dentist.

The GOP had last put up a candidate for governor in 1952.

The social policies of the presidential administrations of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, however, had alienated many Southern Democrats.

After working in the insurance industry for several years, he obtained his D.D.S. from the University of Tennessee Medical Units in Memphis in 1955.

He initially practiced with his father-in-law before opening his own practice in Memphis.

Inspired by Barry Goldwater's views on conservatism, Dunn ran unsuccessfully for the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1962.

His opponents for the nomination included Speaker of the Tennessee House William L. Jenkins, Nashville industrialist Maxey Jarman, former chair of the state party Claude K. Robertson, and the 1962 nominee, Hubert Patty.

Boosted in part by a large turnout in his populous home county of Shelby, Dunn won the nomination, edging his nearest opponent, Jarman, by ten thousand votes.

His opponent in the general election was John Jay Hooker, the Democratic nominee.

He was elected Chairman of the Shelby County Republican Party, and as such campaigned for Goldwater in the 1964 presidential race.

Republicans began showing signs of life in the 1966 Senate race, when Republican Howard Baker Jr., defeated charismatic governor Frank G. Clement.

He was a delegate to the 1968 Republican National Convention, and campaigned for the eventual nominee, Richard Nixon.

In 1968, Nixon carried the state, Republicans won control of the state House of Representatives, and Republican Dan Kuykendall was elected to the Memphis-based 9th district congressional seat.

With future federal judge Harry W. Wellford and future governor Lamar Alexander steering his campaign, Dunn defeated Hooker, 557,024 votes to 498,757, on election day.

Upon taking office, Dunn sought to unify the state, and offered state appointments to both Republicans and Democrats.

Democrats, who controlled the state senate and had regained control of the state house, were initially uncooperative, with Speaker of the House James McKinney and Lieutenant-governor John S. Wilder (who was in the first term of what would become a 36-year tenure) trying at times to thwart his legislative agenda.

In 1970, Dunn sought the Republican nomination for governor.

Prior to the 1970 election, Democrats had controlled the governor's office for 50 years, and had largely dominated state politics since the end of Reconstruction.

Dunn supported the state's ratification of the 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age to 18, in 1971.

In 1972, Ned McWherter was elected house speaker, and proved more open to cooperation with the Republican governor.

In spite of frequent Democratic opposition, Dunn managed to obtain a 0.6% increase in the state sales tax, allowing him to boost highway construction and give pay raises to state employees.

He also created the Department of Economic and Community Development and the Department of General Services (to administer state purchases), and reorganized the Department of Personnel in an attempt to enhance efficiency in the hiring of state workers.

In November 1973, Dunn hosted the Republican Governors Conference in Memphis, where President Nixon, beleaguered by the Watergate scandal, privately assured the governors present that no more surprises would arise from the scandal that would hurt the party.

Dunn's term ended in 1975; at the time, the Constitution of Tennessee barred governors from serving consecutive terms.

He returned to the private sector, working for several years as the vice president of public relations for the Nashville-based Hospital Corporation of America.

Dunn was an unsuccessful candidate for a second term in 1986, losing to Democrat Ned McWherter.

He has remained active in the Republican Party and the medical field since the end of his term as governor.

Dunn was born in Meridian, Mississippi, the son of Aubert C. Dunn, an attorney and politician, and Dorothy (Crum) Dunn.

In 1986, Dunn once again ran for governor.

He easily defeated Hubert Patty and Charles Vick in the Republican primary, but questions over party unity dogged his campaign.

During his first term, Dunn had vetoed a bill calling for the establishment of a medical school at East Tennessee State University, reasoning that the state's three existing medical schools were adequate.

Though the legislature overrode his veto, he nevertheless drew the enmity of powerful 1st district congressman Jimmy Quillen, in whose district the school was to be located.

Quillen was still smarting over the veto more than a decade later, and withheld his endorsement in 1986.

Without Quillen's endorsement, Dunn struggled in East Tennessee (normally a Republican stronghold), and was defeated in the general election by the Democratic nominee, Ned McWherter, 656,602 votes to 553,448.

In his 2007 book, From a Standing Start, Dunn recalled being "shocked" and "disappointed" when a news broadcast on the following evening revealed there was an 18-and-half minute gap in the White House tapes.