Congresswoman made mark as maritime expert
ANNAPOLIS, MD. Helen Delich Bentley, a former Maryland congresswoman who was an expert on the maritime industry, died Aug. 6 of brain cancer. She was 92.
Bentley, a Republican, served in the U.S. House of Representatives in the state’s 2nd Congressional District for 10 years from 1985 to 1995. She was known for a tenacious and gruff political style that produced results, especially when it came to her beloved Port of Baltimore. The port was named after her in 2006.
Gov. Larry Hogan described Bentley as one of Maryland’s most dedicated and respected leaders.
“Congresswoman Bentley worked with tenacity, energy, and passion on behalf of her constituents, making her a rare breed in politics and a role model to public servants across Maryland,” Hogan said in a prepared statement.
Bentley first ran for public office in 1980, when she lost to veteran Rep. Clarence Long. She lost again two years later, but in 1984 she defeated Long.
By the end of her first term, she helped pass a bill allowing a 50foot channel to be dredged into the Baltimore port, making it the only East Coast port with that distinction. She described it as one of her most significant accomplishments.
Bentley ran in Maryland’s Republican gubernatorial primary in 1994, losing to Ellen Sauerbrey. After that loss, she served as president of Helen Bentley & Associates Inc., an international trade consulting firm.
Before politics, Bentley worked as a reporter and editor for The Baltimore Sun from 1945 to 1969. She was the newspaper’s first woman to cover maritime news and quickly proved she could hold her own. In 1954, when a dockworker compared her nose to a ski jump, Bentley punched him in the jaw.
In 1969, she became the first woman to make the dangerous trip through the icy waters of the Northwest Passage. Known for her salty tongue, she ran afoul of the Federal Communications Commission, which happened to be monitoring the ship’s radio when she was filing her story home.
“I just used a common AngloSaxon expletive to express my impatience with a rewrite man,” Bentley said at the time.
Bentley became a leading expert on the maritime industry. In 1969, President Richard Nixon appointed her as chairwoman of the Federal Maritime Commission, the highest-ranking woman in his administration.