The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Community mourns loss of respected educator
WESTBROOK — Howard Budd Bennett Sr., a revered educator and former superintendent of schools for the
Norwich Diocese of Connecticut, is being recalled by family and friends as “a giant of a man.”
Bennett, described by his daughter as the “quintessential, devoted family man,” died Sunday at 85 amid dementia and while fighting the coronavirus. He was being cared for at the Aaron Manor nursing home in Chester.
He was among the nation’s longest-serving school administrators and a multiple award-winning educator whose career spanned more than 45 years, according to his daughter Helen Bennett, group editor for Hearst Connecticut Media in New Haven.
He was married to his wife Joan (Scanlon)
Bennett for 62 years. They have six children and 11 great-grandchildren. “I never knew anybody who loved his family more than this man did,” his daughter said.
“He was an exceptional person who held all of us to high standards, but made it so we all wanted to perform well,” said close family friend Deirdre Houlihan DiCara, executive director of the Friends in Service to Humanity of Northwestern Connecticut in Torrington.
She became best friends with the family’s youngest daughter Daithi Houlihan Borges in the late 1970s when they lived in Winchester. At the time, Howard Bennett was superintendent of schools in the city of Winsted.
“We were so blessed to have the Bennetts just a mile away,” DiCara said.
“He was a wonderful father. All the children adored him.”
“He truly dedicated his life to education and students,” and knew how important it was to prepare them for success in the world, Helen Bennett said.
Howard Bennett, a U.S. Marine and graduate of Hofstra University, was the first layperson to serve in that role at the diocese, opening four schools during his tenure.
Helen Bennett called her father a “giant of a man” who led a well-lived life “devoted utterly to family and country.”
His daughter sympathizes with the thousands of people across the globe who have lost their loved ones due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Our hearts go out to all the people of Connecticut and the world who are going through the same thing. We know what a painful time it is,” she said
on behalf of the family.
Howard Bennett also founded a principal’s leadership academy and pursued a case in the Connecticut courts that established the right to equal busing services, and nursing services for parochial students, according to family.
In 1978, Howard Bennett was named Connecticut Man of the Year by thenGov. Ella T. Grasso. “Having influenced countless young people to continue their education, Bennett was uniquely and boundlessly devoted to his family,” his obituary said.
Recognized as an “innovative” educator, the elder Bennett created “The World We Live In,” a program that brought nationally and internationally known speakers to his public schools, including former Vice President Humbert H. Humphrey and renowned cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead.
He began his administrative career in Cementon, N.Y., at 26, and went on to serve as chief school administrator or superintendent of schools in Otego, Mt. Upton, Tuxedo Park, Clymer and Cambridge.
In Winsted, he was instrumental in opening Connecticut’s first alternative high school, the renovation of the junior high school and other accomplishments, family said.
Howard Bennett was an adjunct at St. Bonaventure, Sacred Heart University and Eastern Connecticut State University and Castleton College. He was a legal advocate for the CT Federation of Catholic School Parents and education arbitrator for Connecticut.
“We truly treasure our friendship with the Bennett family. His children are his legacy.” They are a testament to his values, which included the pursuit of higher education, as well as his insistence on living with honesty and integrity, DiCara said.
“He will be greatly missed,” said DiCara, who will always value the Bennett patriarch’s energy and wisdom. “He encouraged us all to be our best.”