J. Bruce Llewellyn, pioneering black businessman who led Philadelphia Bottling Co., dead at 82

Pioneering black businessman Llewellyn dead at 82

NEW YORK — J. Bruce Llewellyn, one of the country’s most renowned black businessmen, has died in his hometown of New York City at age 82.

Llewellyn has been called an empire-building dealmaker and a savvy entrepreneur. But his wife, Shahara Ahmad-Llewellyn, said Friday her husband was not a “monolithic businessman.”

Ahmad-Llewellyn says her husband died April 7 in Manhattan from renal failure.

By the time he died, he could proudly reflect on a life of public service to U.S. presidents and as an advocate for higher education for minorities.

Yet he was best known for a series of sharp business judgments that led him to become the majority owner of the highly successful Philadelphia Bottling Co.

James Bruce Llewellyn was born on July 16, 1927, to Jamaican immigrants.