Jessie Thomas “Tommy” Bunn, a distinguished leader in U.S. national and state level agricultural policy and marketing and the husband of North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine F. Marshall, passed away unexpectedly July 24 after suffering a traumatic brain event, the North Carolina Department of the Secretary of State reported.
A native of Zebulon, North Carolina, Bunn formerly served as president of the U.S. Tobacco Cooperative following a 21-year career as executive vice-president of the Leaf Tobacco Exporters Association and Tobacco Association of the United States.
In addition, he served as deputy director and acting director of the Agricultural Marketing Service Tobacco Division for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. and served under Commissioner Jim Graham with the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
At the time of his death, he was serving as a consultant to the tobacco industry.
Bunn was named by the North Carolina State Grange as Man of the Year in 1988 and was honored as a Distinguished Alumni with the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State University in 2012, where he graduated with a degree in Agriculture Business/Crop Science in 1966.