- Alvin Morell Bentley
Infobox_Congressman
name =Alvin M. Bentley
date of birth=birth date|1918|8|30
place of birth =Portland, Maine
death_date = Death date and age|1969|4|10|1918|8|30
death_place =Tucson, Arizona
state = Michigan
district = 8th
term_start =January 3 ,1953
term_end =January 3 ,1961
preceded =Fred L. Crawford
succeeded = James Harvey
party =Republican
religion =
spouse =Alvin Morell Bentley III (
August 30 1918 -April 10 1969 CongBio|B000391|inline=1] ) was apolitician from theU.S. state ofMichigan . As a U.S. representative, he made national headlines as one of the victims of the 1954 U.S. Capitol shootings.Early years
Bentley, the only child of Alvin M. Bentley, Jr., and Helen Webb Bentley, was born in
Portland, Maine only three months before his father died serving inFrance duringWorld War I . Although fatherless, Bentley was heir to a family fortune, from his grandfather who founded the Owosso Manufacturing Company.He graduated in 1934 from Southern Pines High School in
Southern Pines, North Carolina and in 1936 from Asheville Prep School inAsheville, North Carolina . He received his bachelor's degree in 1940 from theUniversity of Michigan and attended Turner’s Diplomatic School,Washington, D.C. , to qualify for the U.S. diplomatic service.Government service
He served as vice consul and
secretary with theUnited States Foreign Service , serving inMexico (1942-1944),Colombia (1945-1946),Hungary (1947-1949), andItaly (1949-1950). He returned toWashington, D.C. , onMarch 15 1950 , for work in the State Department.Disagreeing with the Truman administration's foreign policy, Bentley resigned from the diplomatic service in 1950 and returned to live in
Owosso, Michigan . He was adelegate to Republican State conventions in 1950, 1951, and 1952. He wasvice president of Lake Huron Broadcasting Company,Saginaw, Michigan , starting in 1952, and a director of Mitchell-Bentley Corporation.In 1952, Bentley defeated the incumbent Republican
U.S. Representative Fred L. Crawford in the primary election forMichigan's 8th congressional district and went on to win in the 1952 general election. Bentley was elected to the Eighty-third and to the three succeeding Congresses, serving fromJanuary 3 1953 toJanuary 3 1961 . He was not a candidate for re-nomination in 1960, instead running for a seat in theUnited States Senate and losing to Democratic incumbentPatrick V. McNamara in the 1960 general election.Bentley was one of five Representatives shot on
March 1 1954 , in the U.S. Capitol shooting incident when four Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire from the visitors' balcony into the chamber of theUnited States House of Representatives . Bentley was shot in the chest, but survived.Career during the 1960s
From 1961 to 1962, Bentley was a delegate from the 15th Senatorial District to the Michigan State Constitutional Convention, which produced the
Michigan state constitution adopted in 1963. In 1962, Bentley again ran for the U.S. House for a one-term, at-large seat created as a result of the 1960 U.S. Census, but he lost in the general election to DemocratNeil Staebler . He continued public service by receiving appointments to education-related positions in the state. Also, after leaving Congress in 1961, he had returned to theUniversity of Michigan as agraduate student in theHistory department.While continuing to maintain offices in
Washington, D.C. , Bentley commuted by air to Ann Arbor to attend classes. He received a M.A. degree in 1963. In 1966, while pursuing a doctoral degree, GovernorGeorge W. Romney appointed him to theboard of regents of the University of Michigan.He died, aged 50, while on vacation in
Tucson, Arizona . He is interred in Oak Hill Cemetery inOwosso, Michigan . [ [http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/bent-bentnall.html#R9M0IPBML Index to Politicians: Bent to Bentnall] fromthe Political Graveyard ]Philanthropy
In 1961, Bentley established the Alvin M. Bentley Foundation to support educational, scientific, and charitable projects. Through the foundation, Bentley continues to foster academic excellence in the state of Michigan.
In 1983, the foundation established the Bentley Scholarships at the University of Michigan for Michigan residents who have demonstrated academic excellence and promise. The foundation also sponsors Operation Bentley, "a week-long intensive academic program held at
Albion College for high school juniors who have been selected to participate in a rigorous and rewarding study of local, state, and national politics." [ [http://www.albion.edu/bentley/default.asp Operation Bentley ] ]In 1967, he contributed money to the
University of Michigan to establish an endowed professorship in the Department of History in memory of his parents.In the mid-1960s, Bentley served as chairman of the "Michigan Freedom from Hunger Council", a humanitarian organization set up to gather, interpret, and disseminate information about hunger problems in the world, especially in the
Western Hemisphere . Bentley also chaired the Michigan branch of the "Partners of the Alliance", an organization that had begun nationally in 1964, to act as a channel through which civic clubs, unions, business and professional groups, schools, and individuals could work directly with groups, villages, or areas inLatin America to improve the way of life in that particular area. The objective was not charity, but the promotion of self-help programs. The State of Michigan tookBritish Honduras (Belize ) as its partner.In 1971, his widow, Arvella D. Bentley, gave a generous donation to the
University of Michigan 's "Michigan Historical Collections", enabling it to construct a new building which was subsequently renamed theBentley Historical Library .References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.