Helen Delich Bentley

Helen Delich Bentley was the President and CEO of Helen Bentley & Associates, Inc., which provided marketing, consulting, and government relations services, and served as a consultant to the Maryland Port Administration. She was renowned as a journalist and politician, paving the way for women in journalism, advocating for the maritime community, and “fighting for the people.”

Bentley was born in Ruth, Nevada, to Serbian immigrants Michael Delich and Marcia Delich Grubich. Her father died when she was eight from silicosis, an occupational disease contracted by miners, and her mother took in boarders for income. Bentley graduated from the University of Missouri in 1944 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. She was awarded ten honorary doctorates during her life.

From 1945 until 1969, Bentley was a reporter and maritime editor for The Baltimore Sun, where her coverage made her an opinion leader on international maritime issues. She wrote a syndicated column, “Around the Waterfront.” In 1950, she also moved into television. For 15 years, as she turned out weekly 30-minute segments, Bentley produced, directed, edited, wrote, and did interviews for her series, "The Port That Built a City," and, later, "The Port That Built a City - and State." Throughout her career, Bentley tirelessly promoted three primary issues - the advancement of America's maritime community, America's industrial/manufacturing base, and her beloved Port of Baltimore. She co-authored the book, The Great Port of Baltimore: Its First 300 Years (2006).

As Chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission from 1969-1975, during President Nixon’s administration, she was the fourth-highest-ranking woman in federal government history. In 1985, she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Maryland's Second Congressional District, where she served until 1995.

In June 2006, Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. announced he had officially renamed the Port as The Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore. "There has been no one," said Ehrlich in the announcement, "who has championed the vital role the Port plays in both the global economy and our everyday lives more than Helen."

She received numerous national and international honors, including the Admiral of the Ocean Sea (AOTOS) Award in 1981, the Governor's International Leadership Award in 2006, International Maritime Hall of Fame 2004, the Jerry Land Medal of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers in 1974, the U.S. Navy League's Robert Thompson Award in 1973, the United Kingdom's Chamber of Shipping in 1973 and the U.S. Propeller Club's Congressional in 1987 and its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. She also received Industrialist of the Year from the Baltimore Museum of Industry in 2010. Bentley christened 17 American flagships, five of which she named simultaneously at the Sparrows Point Shipyard in 1987.

Bentley married William Roy Bentley in 1959; they had no children. They ran an antique business in Cockeysville, Maryland, before he died in 2003. She died at age 92 from brain cancer at her home in Timonium, Maryland, in 2016.

“Women have to be willing to work and produce, and not just expect favors because they are women.” - Helen Bentley, The Washington Post (2016).

Biography courtesy of the Maryland Commission for Women, 2013; updated 2023.