Former congresswoman Helen Bentley remembered in Harford as 'first-class' and a 'special person'

Several Harford County political leaders say former congresswoman Helen Bentley made unique contributions to the county and to the region, while recalling her can-do approach to public service and life.Mrs. Bentley, who died Saturday at her Timonium home at age 92, represented part of Harford in Congress from 1985 to 1995.A Republican, Mrs. Bentley's own political success and popularity locally have been credited with helping to influence the 1980s shift of Harford County from a mostly reliable Democratic Party county to a Republican stronghold. Many Harford County political leaders of the past quarter century considered her a mentor.&quot;We will miss her. She was first-class,&quot; Harford County Executive Barry Glassman said. &quot;I always thought she was kind of a moderate and did what was best for the Port [of Baltimore], but she was not one of these who walked the party line.&quot;Glassman also remembers &quot;how direct she was... I learned a lot about campaigning from her because she was pretty tireless.&quot;He was a student at Washington College and a member of the Maryland College Republicans, when he worked on Mrs. Bentley's second congressional campaign in 1982, Glassman recalled.Helen Delich Bentley, congresswoman who was a staunch advocate of the port of Baltimore, dies.That was the election in which a portion of Harford County was shifted back into Maryland's Second Congressional District with Baltimore County, and Glassman remembered knocking on doors for her in parts of Baltimore County. From 1972 to 1982, Harford had been in the First District with the Eastern Shore and Southern Maryland counties.&quot;She made us work pretty much all day,&quot; Glassman said. &quot;We did a lot of door-knocking and a lot of door-to-door stuff.&quot;Mrs. Bentley took on a well entrenched Democrat incumbent, Clarence D. Long, in 1980 and 1982, losing both times, before finally beating Dr. Long in 1984. During those campaigns, she billed herself as &quot;The Fighting Lady.&quot;Republican vanguardWhen Mrs. Bentley was first campaigning for Congress, only a handful of local offices and state legislative seats in Harford County were held by Republicans, whose candidates, in order to win, usually needed to hope for bickering among the Democrats, who had a nearly 3 to 1 voter registration advantage.By the time Mrs. Bentley reached the midpoint of her congressional career a decade later, Republican candidates had begun to win with regularity in Harford, including Glassman who was elected to the County Council in 1990.Glassman said he supported Mrs. Bentley when she ran for governor in 1994, a race she lost in the Republican primary to Ellen Sauerbrey.&quot;A lot of Harford Countians stuck with her in that primary,&quot; he said. &quot;She would always call me with advice on different Republican party politics.&quot;Glassman said he visited Mrs. Bentley a few weeks ago and spent about 20 minutes with her. She had been in hospice care at her Timonium home since late June.Even when she was nearing the end of her life, &quot;she was still giving me advice,&quot; Glassman said.The county executive said he believes Mrs. Bentley &quot;kind of paved the way, not only district-wide but in Harford County,&quot; for other Republican women in Maryland.&quot;Congresswoman Bentley could always come down for the Port and both sides could kind of listen to her,&quot; he said. &quot;She had that kind of respect.&quot;Former congresswoman Helen Bentley joined, from left, Harford County Councilman Jim McMahan, County Executive Barry Glassman and incoming Gov. Larry Hogan for the county's innauguration ceremony in December 2014. Mrs. Bentley, who represented part of Harford in Congress from 1985 to 1995, died Saturday at age 92.Mrs. Bentley attended Glassman's inauguration as county executive in December 2014, where she posed for a group photograph with the new county executive, incoming Gov. Larry Hogan and County Councilman Jim McMahan, who had invited her to attend the ceremony as his guest.McMahan said Mrs. Bentley was &quot;a personal friend for 40 years&quot; and served as honorary chairperson of his 2010 and 2014 council campaigns.Former county executive and state planning secretary David Craig said he knew Mrs. Bentley &quot;for a long time, and, actually, probably for the last 15 years, I called her 'Aunt Helen,' and she laughed at that.&quot;&quot;'Helen' means 'light,' and she was. I always enjoyed being with her,&quot; Craig said.Craig, who also visited Mrs. Bentley while she was in hospice care, said he first met her when he was mayor of his hometown of Havre de Grace in the 1980s. They were delegates to the 1992 Republican National Convention in Houston, he said, &quot;so I saw her a lot there.&quot;&quot;She was always very good at what she was doing,&quot; Craig said. &quot;She was always very dedicated to coming up to Havre de Grace and Harford County.&quot;Presidential visitsAs a congresswoman, Mrs. Bentley was instrumental in bringing Presidents Ronald Reagan and President George W. Bush to the county. Reagan visited Fallston High School in the fall of 1985, Bush came to a Riverside construction site with Mrs. Bentley in 1992.Frank Stultz, who was principal of Fallston High School from 1977 to 1990, said he first met Mrs. Bentley about 32 years ago, when she took an in-depth tour of the high school after Harford County was added to the Second Congressional District and Bentley was running for the seat.On the walk-through of the building, Stultz, who is retired and lives in Venice, Fla., recalled Mrs. Bentley was &quot;a very inquisitive person…all the time, she is asking questions and she doesn't comment, she just takes stuff in.&quot;Stultz said Reagan came to the school and spoke in December 1985 following the release of a &quot;scathing national study of public schools.&quot;&quot;Helen Bentley had to be behind that, because she and Reagan were close,&quot; Stultz said. &quot;Somehow, I think she was the one who encouraged the White House, the staff, and somehow she got word to them [that] the president really ought to come to this part of Harford County,&quot; he said.Although it was never openly said, Stultz suspects &quot;Helen's experience with the school said, 'this is a place the president ought to see.'&quot;Shultz said Mrs. Bentley's interest in the school and personal commitment to it was unique among politicians, and she also helped Fallston bring in commencement speakers, such as former ambassador Alan Keyes and prominent Baltimore philanthropist Lyn Meyerhoff.&quot;Helen was loyal. If she said she would do something, she would do it,&quot; he said, adding that Mrs. Bentley &quot;could pick a phony out of a large group or a small group&quot; and &quot;was one of those people who did not suffer fools lightly.&quot;Jim Richardson, the Harford County government's human resources director, said he worked closely with Mrs. Bentley when he was director of a U.S. Department of Agriculture agency and she was serving in Congress.He said Mrs. Bentley helped him and former Harford County executive Jim Harkins by taking them under her wing. After Harkins became county executive in 1998, Richardson joined his administration.&quot;I owe a great deal to Helen Bentley. I never worked with her staff but I worked with her a great deal,&quot; Richardson said. &quot;What everybody writes about her is true. It was a take-no-prisoners approach.&quot;&quot;I never saw anybody with more energy and willpower, but at the same time, what we are kind of missing in today's world of politics is, Helen, while she was Republican, had friends up and down every aisle of Congress,&quot; he said.&quot;She was a special person, for sure,&quot; Richardson said. &quot;We will never see anybody like her again.&quot;

Former congresswoman Helen Bentley remembered in Harford as 'first-class' and a 'special person'

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