J. Bruce Llewellyn
James Bruce Llewellyn (July 16, 1927 – April 7, 2010) was an American businessman. His personal wealth has been estimated to exceed $160 million. In 1963, he joined others to found 100 Black Men of America, a social and philanthropic organization. In 1985, he and a group of business partners, among them Julius Erving, Bill Cosby, and Shahara Ahmad-Llewellyn, bought a majority share of the Philadelphia Coca-Cola Bottling Company, the first of the company's bottling plants to be acquired by a black person or persons. Early life. Llewellyn was born in Harlem in Manhattan , the son of a Jamaican mother and a Guyanese father. Both of his parents came to the United States in 1921. After two years the family moved to Westchester County, settling in White Plains, in a predominantly white middle-class environment, though Llewellyn went to integrated schools. He worked in his father's bar and restaurant and sold magazines and Fuller Brush products. In 1943, Llewellyn joined the US Army, where he served as a first lieutenant. Family. Llewellyn's sister, Dorothy Cropper, became a judge on the New York State Court of Claims. His middle daughter, Alexandra Marie Llewellyn , was married to Tom Clancy. His wife of 30 years, Shahara Ahmad-Llewellyn, was vice chair of Philly Coke, serves as vice chair of Jazz at Lincoln Center, and was appointed by Michael Bloomberg to the NYC Commission on Women's issues. His youngest daughter, Jaylaan Ahmad-Llewellyn, is a Harvard graduate and founder of Bluhammock Music and Bluhorse Clothes. His mother, Nessa F. Llewellyn, a Jamaican immigrant, lived to be 102. Llewellyn was the brother-in-law of Shahara's sister Sharifa Alkhateeb. He was also an uncle by marriage to Suzanne de Passe through his second wife Jacqueline . Death. Llewellyn died of renal failure at the age 82, in New York City.