When Liza Beth Bruno, 14, ran for student council president at Hillside Middle School in Manchester, New Hampshire, it was no surprise that she won. After all, she had some of the best political advice one could get – and at no cost.

Liza is the daughter of George Bruno and Rona Zlokower; Bruno is a member of the Hartwick College Board of Trustees, former Ambassador to Belize, and long-time Democratic activist.

"Liza came up with a campaign theme and put together an organization," says her father proudly, as he sits in his handsome Manchester home.

Bruno's career encompasses much more than politics, however. He could be described as having three careers – law, politics, and international affairs – although it's hard to tell when one ends and the other begins.

Friend Gary O'Neil of O'Neil Griffin Bodi, a public relations firm in Manchester, describes Bruno as a man with great breadth. "He can easily go from a city issue to a global issue without breaking stride," says O'Neil, who has worked with Bruno on both legal and political issues. "He's our version of Pierre Salinger (author and former press secretary for President John F. Kennedy). He's a bon vivant, a world traveler. He's been there, seen that, knows everybody. These days, it's not a problem to get an opinion from someone, but most people don't have a clue what they're talking about. George has one or two clues."

Bruno's experience on the national political scene began when he was an advance man for vice presidential candidate Walter Mondale in the 1976 presidential campaign.

"I traveled around the country with him," says Bruno. "We had good times and bad times. That was my first real taste of national politics and I've been involved ever since."

Bruno went on to chair the New Hampshire Democratic Party and was a member of the Democratic National Committee from 1983-1996. He was one of the first people in New Hampshire approached by Bill Clinton when he was considering a run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1991.

"I was at a meeting one day in Los Angeles," says Bruno. "Governor Clinton happened to be in the same hotel and someone slipped me a note saying the governor would like me to come up and talk with him. I went up and he said he was planning to run for President and would I support him. I told him I'd think about it and we'd talk later.

"Well, the next day, I got another note that the governor wanted to see me again. He said he really wanted my help and he really wished I'd make a decision soon. So I said, 'OK, you're my candidate.'"

Clinton announced two weeks later and came to New Hampshire a few days after that. Bruno introduced him around the state and helped him open and staff his New Hampshire office.

Bruno's friendship with and support of Clinton led to his appointment as Ambassador to Belize in 1994.

Belize is a small, Latin American country with a long history of peace. It is the most stable country in Central and Southern America, says Bruno.

Bruno headed a staff of about 120 people and was responsible for ten or so federal agencies there, including the Voice of America, the Peace Corps, the U.S. Information Agency, and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The principles guiding his work in Belize, he says, came from the Summit of the Americas in Miami in 1994, which Bruno attended. It was a meeting convened by President Clinton of the heads of 34 of the 35 countries in North and South America.

"It was a remarkable gathering," he says. "The summit consolidated ongoing policies of the United States in Latin America, policies to strengthen democracy wherever we could, promote respect for human rights, support a free press, and the free movement of goods and people."

Bruno proudly points out that, today, of the 35 nations in North and South America, only one, Cuba, is a dictatorship. "Twenty years ago, it was a totally different picture," he says.

On of Bruno's accomplishments as Ambassador was the oversight of the largest U.S. military humanitarian exercise in the Western Hemisphere. The exercise involved 400 troops constructing bridges, roads, clinics, and schools in Belize over a six-month period.

"George was born to be an ambassador," says attorney Jim Normand, a Manchester colleague and friend. "I've seen him in action in the political environment and with people from Europe and Central America. He knows how to get his message across while allowing everyone to be treated with respect and dignity."

Monsignor Philip Kenney, a friend of Bruno for many years, agrees. "George is a gentleman," he says. "He has good manners. But he's also a gutsy guy. He's going to speak his piece; he's not going to lay down and let anyone walk over him.

"He's a man who has not forgotten where he comes from," adds Kenney. "He has a grace and taste for keeping alive friendships. He does not forget his friends."

Since returning from Belize in 1998, Bruno has continued to be active in international affairs. As an advisor to the Pentagon, he helped establish emergency response systems in Eastern European countries. He has served on official U.S. election observation missions in Pakistan and Romania. As an election observer, his role was to go out to certain polling stations and observe the methods of voting, interview voters, and talk with public officials and party leaders. The observation team then made a determination as to whether the election was fair and free.

In Romania, one of the districts Bruno observed included the city of Brasov. He saw "machine gun bullet holes on the side of a building where months before there had been a shoot-out between communist and pro-democracy forces."

"In a country like Romania, that has endured so much," he says, "it was exciting to see people proudly stepping up and casting ballots for the first time in their lives."

In 1998-99, he was a member of the committee that facilitated the return of the operation of the Panama Canal to Panama from the U.S. (to fulfill the 1977 Canal Treaty). Currently, he is the diplomat-in-residence at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation and helps the institute integrate democratic and human rights into the curriculum.

Bruno also has started his own international consulting business. He represents an environmental company that is "trying to remediate oil spills in Nigeria" and works for the government of India to "help tell its story in the United States."

"I've finally found a way to combine the two things I love the most," he says, "law and international relations."

The law part came before Bruno got involved in politics and he continues to practice law in New Hampshire – when he has time. But even as a student at Hartwick College in the early 1960s, Bruno knew he wanted to be a lawyer.

A native of Woodstock, NY, Bruno says "I was brought up with the idea of trying to make things better than when you found them. I wanted to be a person who shapes events and influences decision-making. And I had this idea that you could use law to promote social justice and make contributions to the community.

Bruno went on to law school at George Washington University in Washington, DC and, following graduation, to a fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

As a fellow, he was sent to Newark, NJ to work in a training program for anti-poverty lawyers.

"There were 50 of us from around the country," he says. "They called us social engineers or social reformers. We tried to use law as it was intended to be used – to be equally applied to everyone. That upset some people."

When he was only 29, Bruno went before the U.S. Supreme Court and won a landmark case, which prevented the Social Security disability benefits of a woman on welfare from being taken by the welfare department.

"That decision still applies and has affected millions of people nationally," he says. "It prevents creditors from attaching Social Security benefits to pay debts."

In 1971, Bruno was recruited to New Hampshire to create a state-wide legal aid system. He put together a program that included 24 civil and criminal lawyers throughout the state and resolved more than 7,000 cases annually.

He raised money to fund the program from 25 sources, including the state and federal governments, United Way, and several private foundations.

Neil Berkson was one of those young attorneys who Bruno hired as part of the legal aid system. "George was the pivot in moving the legal assistance system from a kind of sleepy, comfortable operation to something that was very alive," says Berkson. "He put issues related to poverty in the forefront of the legal community. He really cared about poor people and the issues related to poverty law."

Berkson, who now practices law in Keene, NH, says he also appreciated how Bruno supported the attorneys he hired. "I remember one Saturday, I was on my way to the White Mountains and I picked up a copy of the Union Leader (a New Hampshire daily newspaper)," says Berkson. "The headline read 'Legal Parasites Assailed.' It was an attack by then-Governor Meldrim Thompson on New Hampshire legal assistance. It was a tough political climate and we were often out on a limb, but George supported us."

Bruno was then asked to create a new public defender program for the state. "We created a pilot public defender program that grew into a state-wide program and is one of the model systems in the country," he says. "It is the envy of many other states."

During this time, Bruno met his wife, Rona Zlokower, who was head of community relations for Digital Equipment Corporation in New England. They were married by Monsignor Kenney in front of the fireplace in their current home.

Bruno has been involved in alumni activities at Hartwick for several years and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters at Hartwick's 1996 Commencement. He was elected to the College's Board of Trustees two years ago.

"President Detweiler was trying to arrange a meeting with me," says Bruno, "but we could never get in the same city at the same time. So I called and asked him what he wanted and he said he wanted to recruit me for the Board. I told him to forget the meeting, I'd do it."

Since joining the Hartwick College Board, Bruno, not surprisingly, has been an advocate for more involvement in international areas.

"I'd like to see more international students at Hartwick," he says, "and more visits to other countries by U.S. students; maybe a housing unit for international and American students. I'd like to see us determine how we can make use of international opportunities as a way to promote the College and enrich campus life."

In any given week, Bruno may be at a board meeting in Oneonta; consulting in Washington, DC; having lunch with the ambassador from Albania; or meeting with the president of Nigeria.

But you'll always find him at home in Manchester on the weekends, which he reserves for spending time with daughter, Liza, and wife, Rona, as well as New Hampshire friends. And, who knows, he may be needed to provide more political advice to Liza. If she's anything like her father, her first foray into politics won't be her last."

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