Helen Delich Bentley

A Representative from Maryland; born in Ruth, White Pine County, Nev., November 28, 1923; attended the University of Nevada, and Georgetown University, Washington, D.C..; BA., University of Missouri, 1944; journalist; television producer; chair, Federal Maritime Commission, 1969-1975; international business consultant; unsuccessful candidate for election to the Ninety-seventh in 1980 and Ninety-eighth Congresses in 1982; elected as a Republican to the Ninety-ninth and to the four succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1985-January 3, 1995); was not a candidate for reelection to the One Hundred Fourth Congress in 1994, but was an unsuccessful candidate for nomination for Governor of Maryland; private advocate; unsuccessful candidate for election to the One Hundred Eighth Congress in 2002. She was the first female chairman of the FMC, which she headed from 1969 to 1975, and later served 10 years as a Republican congresswoman from Maryland. Before her appointment to the FMC, she spent 24 years as maritime reporter and editor for the Baltimore Sun. Mrs. Bentley was a steadfast advocate of the U.S.-flag industry, and a critic of efforts to weaken U.S.-flag cargo preference laws. At the FMC she criticized what she saw as predatory rate-cutting by government-controlled Russian carriers. She was a tireless promoter of the Port of Baltimore, where she seemingly knew everyone and everything, from details about construction of the port’s World Trade Center headquarters building to the the byzantine internal politics of the port’s ILA locals. After 24 years as the Sun’s maritime editor, Mrs. Bentley’s career took a different turn. In 1969, when newly elected President Nixon nominated her to chair the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission. Mrs. Bentley is survived by a niece. She was predeceased by her husband, William Roy Bentley, who died in 2003.