Great Living Cincinnatians: Honorees

John Bullock was a Cincinnati arts patron and civic fund raiser extraordinaire.

Born in Covington, Kentucky on July 16, 1906, Bullock earned an A.B. degree from the University of Kentucky in 1928. He was awarded the Bachelor of Laws degree by Yale University in 1930. The University of Cincinnati awarded him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 1963 for “his numerous contributions to the civic life of his community.”

A member of the Cincinnati law firm of Taft, Stettinius & Hollister, he also served as a member of the Board of Trustees of Bethesda Maryland Hospital, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and the Cincinnati Institute of Fine Arts. He was President and Vice President, respectively, of the organizations.

As president of the Cincinnati Symphony, he headed the search committee that brought Max Rudolf from the Met in New York to become conductor of the CSO in 1958. Bullock has worked religiously during his long association with the United Fine Arts Fund Campaign and as vice president of the Cincinnati Institute of the Fine Arts. He was one of the original members of the board of WCET, the first educational TV station to be licensed in the nation.

As a campaign committee chairman for the Great Rivers Girl Scout Council, he raised more than $600,000 from the business community to build a new Girl Scout Camp at Ross, Ohio. He also raised the money needed in the 1960s to put together a team from the University of Chicago that conducted one of the most broad-based and complete studies of the Cincinnati school system ever produced. The task forces that resulted from this Campbell Report led the business community and the public in general to take a much more active and lasting role in school affairs.

Bullock retired from full activities at his law firm in 1975, becoming counsel in May of that year. He died January 26, 1979.