In his 80 years, Bruce Cunningham has worn many hats: Grogan’s Mill Village Board Association president, The Woodlands Cycling Club president, MUD No. 6 president, and founder of Aging In Place-The Woodlands. Most recently, Cunningham received the title of The Woodlands Hometown Hero 2016 for his dedication to the community he has called home for the past 29 years.

“[Cunningham] is an inspiration to those of us who work with him on his many and varied projects in The Woodlands,” said Helen Bostock, Aging in Place-The Woodlands board of directors member. “The key to his success in the community is [his ability to] recognize the need for a given project and find the right people to bring the project into reality.”

Growing up with his father in the Marine Corps, Cunningham started his journey in New York City but would go on to attend 10 different schools by the time he graduated from college. With an extensive career working for nearly every major airline, Cunningham has worked in 42 countries and spent 15 years living overseas.

During the 1970s, Cunningham was appointed by President Gerald Ford to be director of the Bureau of Operating Rights for the Civil Aeronautics Board; he was reappointed by President Jimmy Carter after he took office in 1977.

Employment with Continental Airlines brought Cunningham to The Woodlands in 1987, and he started his own consulting business shortly thereafter. He was instrumental in establishing the Grogan’s Mill farmers market as well as getting “Share the road” traffic signs placed along thoroughfares in The Woodlands.

“When I was president of the GMVA, we were very concerned that the Grogan’s Mill Shopping Center would fail,” Cunningham said. “So we set up the market in 2008 with about a dozen vendors, and we now average about 40 vendors and on some weekends we even get 50. It just keeps growing, and we’ve made it more of an event now rather than just a market.”

Cunningham said he is passionate about water conservation and taking care of Montgomery County’s growing elderly population. He retired in 2011 at age 75 with his wife of 56 years and a legacy of four children and six grandchildren.

In his time as a resident of The Woodlands, Cunningham said he has witnessed a transformation in the master-planned community that he said is deviating from George Mitchell’s vision. 

“Things started changing and we started seeing curbs and gutters and changes in the way the land was allowed to be developed,” he said. “There became new and different standards for Town Center, East Shore and Creekside [Park]. In each instance, you can see how the standards have deteriorated with fewer trees and closer spacing.” 

Recent additions to Cunningham’s lengthy resume include membership on the Friends of the Library board of directors, a seat on the finance committee of his church, Sts. Simon and Jude, and service as a mentor at local schools.

The project he is most devoted to these days is Aging In Place-The Woodlands, an organization that strives to bring resources and connections to the growing senior population of The Woodlands.

“We have a tsunami of people growing older, and the government’s not going to be able to take care of all of them,” Cunningham said. “Social Security was set up originally to take effect at age 65 in Germany because in the 1880s-’90s, almost everybody was dead by the age of 63. Today, the average man lives to be 78 and the average woman lives to be 82. We just can’t afford it now.”

Cunningham said he believes his devotion to The Woodlands community can be attributed to where he finds himself in late psychologist Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

“We cannot take care of problems ourselves, but we also can’t rely on the government to solve all of our problems for us,” he said. “So we need community organizations of all sorts to pick up the slack and fill the voids for the future. I guess I fall in the transcendence level of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, which is a desire to help others in the future after you’ve left this world.”