Former Tennessee Gov. Winfield Dunn, who left dentistry to win as a first-time candidate, dies at 97

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Former Tennessee Gov. Winfield Dunn, who left dentistry to make a successful run for office in 1970 without having previously held public office, has died. He was 97.

The Republican from Memphis died Saturday, Gov. Bill Lee’s office announced. Dunn became the state’s first GOP governor in 50 years, helping usher in a two-party system. He was barred from succeeding himself as governor — a law that later was changed — and ran unsuccessfully for a second term in 1986.

Dunn’s achievements include expanding public kindergartens to every Tennessee school. He also created a regional prison program, a new Department of Economic and Community Development and a state housing agency to help middle- and low-income families obtain mortgages.

“I’ve never really thought about a legacy,” Dunn said in an interview in 1998. “But I would say it was a time when more good people, for all the right reasons, became a part of the process than ever before. I think I helped create a change in the political climate in Tennessee.”

Born Bryant Winfield Culberson Dunn on July 1, 1927, in Meridian, Mississippi, he was a virtual unknown in Tennessee when he mounted the state Capitol steps in the spring of 1970 to announce a run for governor. Only two reporters were present.

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Through extensive traveling around the state, and with the support of Sen. Howard Baker, R-Tenn., and Rep. Dan Kuykendall, a Memphis Republican, Dunn won a four-man primary and went on to defeat Democrat John Jay Hooker Jr. in the general election.

Dunn’s campaign manager was 30-year-old Lamar Alexander, who later would become governor, U.S. senator, U.S. education secretary and a presidential candidate.

Dunn opposed a medical school at East Tennessee State University in 1974, which was approved anyway by the Legislature. He also tried to force a regional prison on Morristown, but the project was halted because of local opposition.

Both those cost him support in Republican east Tennessee, hurting him in 1986 when he ran for governor again and was defeated by Democrat Ned McWherter.

During that race, McWherter said about Dunn: “I like him, and he’s a good, honest man.”

In his first year as governor, Dunn asked the Legislature to increase the state sales tax to 4% from 3%. The Democratic Legislature approved 3.5%.

Dunn recalled in 1998 that Democrats opposed him generally.

“They gave me a hard time,” he said. “That first year was a learning year for me.”

Dunn earned degrees in finance from the University of Mississippi and dental surgery from the University of Tennessee at Memphis.

He took a job with Hospital Corporation of America shortly after leaving office in 1975 and was a vice president with the company when he ran for governor the second time.

“I feel I was a part of altering the political history of the state,” Dunn said in 1998. “And it can never be taken away. I know I was a child of fate. I was in the right place, at the right time.”