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08/03/2016 08:30 AMAs a senior in high school, Bruce Farmer got an offer almost too good to refuse. The church where he worshipped and taught Sunday school would pay 100 percent of his tuition at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on one condition: He would agree to become a Lutheran minister.
Bruce enrolled at the State University of New York (SUNY).
“I didn’t have the calling,” he says, with a smile. “Some of my friends told me I should have taken the offer and ‘changed my mind,’” he recalls, but he figured he’d let the opportunity pass to someone who genuinely wanted to enter the ministry.
Bruce, meanwhile, followed his own dream, earning his bachelor’s degree at SUNY, moving on to the College of Insurance (now St. John’s University School of Risk Management, Insurance, and Actuarial Science), and launching a career as an insurance marketing executive that spanned 45 years.
“I looked so forward to it every day,” he says of his job, which involved insurance and reinsurance—a means of risk management through which insurance companies insure other insurance companies. A catastrophic event such as a hurricane, he explains, could financially devastate an insurer; reinsurance—or stop-loss—spreads out the risk and costs.
“I helped companies really figure out how many people they had in any one location, and I helped them plan for worst-case scenarios,” he says.
Seven years after retiring, Bruce is back at work again, pulling 55-hour weeks and still looking forward to every day on the job. Last November, in one of the closest races in Connecticut municipal election history, he became first selectman for the Town of Clinton after a tie vote with five-term incumbent Willie Fritz; a recount determined that Bruce had won by a single vote. The Republican challenger credits his win in large part to his willingness to get out and talk to people, face-to-face.
“Tip O’Neill believed in knocking on doors,” says Bruce. “It’s crucial for people to know you and trust you.”
Native New Yorker
Born in New York City, Bruce Farmer lived across from the United Nations headquarters as a child.
“I was fortunate enough to go to school with kids whose parents worked for the U.N.,” which brought him into contact early and often with diverse people, languages, and cultures, he says.
“In New York,” he says, “I was also exposed to all the arts the city has to offer and sporting events at Madison Square Garden.”
His mother was an officer in an insurance company, and his father a business consultant. For the Farmers, travel was an integral part of family life, and for that reason, says Bruce, history was always his favorite subject.
“We used to travel throughout the United States in the summer, as well as into Canada, the Caribbean, and much of Europe. I had the opportunity to see 46 of the 50 states and a lot of historic sites.”
The four states he hasn’t visited—yet—are North and South Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming.
“They’re on my bucket list,” he says. “They have terrific state parks, and I plan to get there to see them.”
Eventually Bruce’s parents, looking to settle in the suburbs, found a place on Long Island’s south shore, where their teenage son took up every form of outdoor recreation available to him, from golf and baseball to water sports and scouts.
Growing up, he says, through some of the philanthropic work his family was involved in, he got to meet world-famous athletes, including Baseball Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson and pro golf legend Arnold Palmer.
“I idolized Jackie Robinson and Arnold Palmer,” says Bruce, “not only for their talent on the field or on the green, but also for their humanitarian efforts. I was privileged to meet them and have long conversations with them.”
‘Change Is Good’
After college, Bruce’s foray into the working world started when he took a position as an insurance trainee in a field “primarily involved in the potential for a catastrophic loss of life involving masses of people,” he says, “due to acts of God, pure accidents caused by people, construction accidents, acts of terrorism, and other homeland security issues.”
He initially worked in New York, but a corporate transfer brought him and his wife of 16 years to Stamford. (Bruce and Barbara have now been married for 49 years; next year, they will celebrate their golden anniversary. Their daughter—like her father and grandmother before her—is an insurance executive working in New York.)
“When we moved to Connecticut in 1983,” Bruce recalls, “we were very anxious to find a shoreline community similar to where we lived on Long Island, someplace where we could enjoy the country, go for long walks, go boating, and do everything related to the shoreline.”
Clinton, he says, was the place for them.
“We are really blessed to live in such a wonderful shoreline community, not only in terms of what our particular town has to offer in the way of sports and recreation and the arts—we have a wonderful art community, shows, music, and dance performances—but also the spirit and enthusiasm of the people in the community really fill my heart with joy.”
Bruce and Barbara became active in town, volunteering for various nonprofit organizations.
“We’ve done a lot of advocating, actual labor, fundraising, serving on boards, and getting money for organizations that don’t necessarily get the big dollars from corporations, but do outstanding work in their local communities—women’s shelters, food banks, groups that try to put a little sunshine in people’s lives and help them with life’s challenges. We’ve also done a lot of work for churches and saved historic buildings from wrecking balls.”
Seven years ago, Bruce retired, and while many people look forward to the golden years, he admits, “It was very difficult. I was a lost soul for two months.”
Then, he says, he jumped on the Inland Wetlands Commission, then Clinton’s Board of Finance and Zoning Board of Appeals.
“I started to get involved with folks volunteering on other boards and commissions, doing public service for the town. I found the Board of Finance especially interesting and challenging, trying to do the best we could with the amount of money we would work with.”
Eventually, he says, people he volunteered with encouraged him to consider running for first selectman.
“I had a long chat with my wife and thought it was a good time to commit. It’s my belief that public service is a calling, not a career, and at this point in my life, serving the community is my calling.”
As the town’s first selectman, Bruce says he’s on call 24/7—”My phone is always on.” He also acknowledges the help and contributions of town employees and “the wonderful people who volunteer on every board, commission, and committee and bring a wealth of talent, knowledge, and dedication to their work.”
Although it takes a lot of his time, the job of first selectman “has re-energized me in every way,” he says. “You really feel like you’re helping the town’s residents, businesses, and visitors.”
When asked to describe his first seven months in office in three words, Bruce says, “‘Change is good.’ That applies to me, and it also has been eye-opening for other people to see what we can get done here.”
‘I Will Absolutely Run Again’
He admits that two years isn’t a long time to accomplish many of the longer-term goals he has for the town and says he plans to throw his hat in the ring again in 2017.
“In order to accomplish everything I want to, yes—I will absolutely run again.”
In addition to maintaining Clinton’s current Aa2 credit rating, Bruce says his goals include providing more activities and services as well as broadening the town’s tax base.
“I believe very strongly in economic development, but we must be cognizant of not disturbing our quality of life, public safety, and the environment. It has to really be thoughtful, careful development.”
He’s keen to see the completion of the Village at Mill Pond, a mixed-use retail and residential development with a hotel and restaurants at the site of the old Morgan School.
“It will grow our town well. I want to see the expansion of the train station and am assured it will be complete in three years. This will include a crossover to a platform on the westbound side and more parking on the north side.”
Other infrastructure projects in the works that he’d like to see through to completion are the construction of sidewalks from the old Morgan to the newly constructed Morgan School as well as sidewalks downtown, both east and west.
One of the changes he called for when campaigning for office last fall was the creation of a gifted and talented program within Clinton Public Schools.
“I have since learned that we’re doing much better than I anticipated in meeting the needs of our students with special needs in particular,” he says. “I was very fortunate to be invited to spend time with the Board of Education and school administration on a number of issues, and it’s my belief that we have one of the finest academic programs in Connecticut and some of the finest teachers.”
He adds, however, “We can do better. I really want us to be able to promote our academic program and the new high school and its technology so that we can draw more young families to our town, which is vital to our future.”