George (Bud) Bray

Born in Philadelphia three days before FDR died, Bud attended at age six his first political event, a rally for Adlai Stevenson, on the shoulders of his namesake IBEW-member father. 

A few days after JFK was buried, Bud decided to join the USN, which brought him to Groton for submarine school in late 1964. Four years later with his honorable discharge in hand, The New London Day hired Bud to write and report; subsequently followed by the same at The Norwich Bulletin and Hartford Courant.

In 1982 Bud created, with Groton businessmen and Democrat John McGee Jr., a community weekly newspaper serving Groton. From 1985 to 2000, he managed a self-storage facility in Waterford. 

He retired in 2007 at age 62 and has resided in the AHEPA seniors apartments on Clark Lane since 2014. Bud’s three offspring are overachievers doing very well, and his four grandchildren (three age 6 and one age 2) are doing very well, too. 

In 1997, Bud was featured in the Connecticut Television documentary “Suburbia: The Good Life?” when he was filmed and interviewed while driving a New London school bus, his second job at that time. His third job at that time was as evening counselor to the men housed in the region’s first homeless shelter, The Covenant House of New London, which still stands and serves.