T. Bayard Brunt

Thomas Bayard Brunt Jr. a former investigative reporter for the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin died this past Tuesday of complications from a bacterial infection of his heart. He was 95. Mr. Brunt was the only child of Thomas Bayard Brunt Sr and Eliza Estelle Cohen and grew up as a young boy in West Philadelphia and then moved to Riverton NJ in 1920 when he was 4 years old. He attended Moorestown Friends School with his late wife and then attended the University of Pennsylvania on a scholarship. Mr. Brunt graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Phi Beta Kappa in 1938. While at the University he began working as a student at the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin and upon graduation he began working there full time. He married the late Janet Wheeler, his wife of 64 years, in 1940 and they had two sons, Thomas Bayard Brunt III and Peter Wheeler Brunt before being called to duty for Naval training at the Great Lakes Facility. Shortly after completing his training he was posted to Bain Bridge Maryland and shortly thereafter the war ended. Two more children, Caroline Janet Brunt and Lydia Ann Brunt joined the Brunt family in the ensuing years. Once he was discharged from the Navy he resumed working for the Bulletin and eventually became an investigative reporter working on many major initiatives that exposed corruption in Philadelphia and also investigating the late Ted Kennedy's explanations of the Chappaquiddick incident by actually swimming the channel and calling into question the Senator's statements of this event. Mr. Brunt is survived by four children: Thomas B. Brunt III (Kristine) of St. Thomas, V.I., Peter Wheeler Brunt (Wendy) of Jobstown, NJ, Caroline Janet Moriuchi (Fred) and Lydia Ann Myers (Barry) all of Moorestown, NJ. Also surviving are eleven Grand children:Thomas, Shane, Kimberly, Katherine, Jonathan, Timothy, Takashi, Naoji, Seiji, Akemi, and Nathan;and fourteen Great Grand children. Services will be held at 11 AM on Saturday, March 3rd at the Perinchief Chapels, 438 High Street, Mount Holly, NJ. Interment will be in the Friends' Green Lawn Cemetery, Moorestown. Friends may call from 10AM-11AM followed by services at 11AM at the Chapels. In lieu of Flowers the family requests that donations be made to Moorestown Friends School through the T Bayard Brunt, Jr '34 and Janet Wheeler Brunt, '34 Scholarship Endowment 110 East Main St., Moorestown, NJ 08057

T. Bayard Brunt

February 24, 1916 - February 28, 2012