Necrology
Laurence Robert Bentley '71
Feb. 24, 1950-Mar. 22, 2023
Laurence Robert Bentley ’71 died in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, on March 22, 2023. Born on Feb. 24, 1950, in Burbank, Calif., he grew up in North Hollywood and came to Hamilton from Ulysses Grant High School in Van Nuys. On the Hill, he majored in physics, joined Theta Delta Chi fraternity, serving as its social chairman as a senior, and was a member of the Doers & Thinkers honor society as a sophomore. An excellent long-distance freestyle swimmer, Larry joined the swim team as a freshman and sophomore and, after taking a year off, was named the team’s most valuable player as a senior. Also in his last year, he was president of the Water Polo Club and named to the All-League Water Polo team.
At the beginning of his senior year, Larry discussed his interest in oceanography with his advisor, Professor of Physics Jim Ring ’51, who informed him that he would need to prepare for that field in graduate study by taking at least one course in geology. The class was taught by Professor of Geology Don Potter, whom Larry later credited with directing him to his life’s work as a geophysicist.
Larry took his academic work seriously: he was awarded both the Tompkins Prize and the Edward Huntington Memorial Scholarship (both in mathematics) in his junior year and inducted into Phi Beta Kappa as a senior.
Upon graduating, he enrolled at the University of Hawaii to pursue a degree in geology and geophysics, which he was awarded in 1974. He then worked for the Western Geophysical Co. in Houston and, between 1974 and 1980, was based in Colombia, Brazil, and Chile. Before he returned to the job in Houston, he took a year off to grow grapes and make raisins. While stopping by the company’s Richmond, U.K., office in 1981, he met Kathryn Linda Pile, a staff member. In April 1982, when she transferred to Western Geophysical’s Houston headquarters, she and Larry bumped into each other in the elevator. That was when their relationship began. They were married in Houston in the garden of mutual friends on June 18, 1983, and would have two sons and a daughter.
In 1985, after a decade of field research, Larry entered the doctoral program in civil engineering at Princeton University. His research on groundwater resources and contamination was supported in part by a graduate fellowship from the U.S. Air Force Laboratory. He received his degree in October 1990 and the title of his dissertation was “The Eulerian-Lagrangian Least Squares Collocation Method for Solving the Transport Equation.” Thereafter, he and his family relocated to Burlington, Vt., where he was a postdoctoral fellow for one year in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Vermont.
His academic career began in 1991 with his appointment as assistant professor in the Department of Geoscience at the University of Calgary with responsibility for establishing a new program in hydrology. He was a highly productive scientist, clearly one who could easily formulate new research problems. One meaningful measure of his productivity was the 142 publications of which he was either sole author or, very often, the lead author as part of a team. The impact these publications have had upon his field can be measured by the fact that, collectively, they have been cited more than 2,000 times by other researchers.
Larry was also a distinguished teacher, mentoring numerous graduate students and advising them on their research. He is remembered for enormous patience, providing his mentees with the time necessary to enable them to succeed in their scientific work. A former student eulogized him warmly: “We shared a lot of intellectual adventures when I did my Ph.D. under his care. Larry gave lots of worldly advice, and we spent many an hour talking about the finer details of our craft…. What I remember most is his extremely high expectations, which drove all his students to become better versions of themselves.”
When not in the lab, he pursued other interests, one of which was the ukulele, which he picked up in the early 2000s to play informally. His brother and one of his sons were also musicians. Like them, he played for pleasure with friends, one of whom recalled that “Larry was very talented musically, had a great syncopated rhythm, and was always bringing new songs to our [ukulele] group.” When the pandemic hit, he took up the piano and, according to his teacher, was among the best adult students she had, always coming prepared for lessons after practicing for several hours a day.
Another interest was hockey, which he began to play shortly after arriving in Calgary in 1991. He joined several adult leagues and played defense, although there were rare occasions in which he scored a goal. When his children were younger, he coached their baseball and soccer teams. He also rode his bicycle, ran long distances, and surfed, the latter a legacy of his time in the 50th state.
Larry retired from the University of Calgary in January 2018, but kept his hand in academia by occasionally participating in hydrology field research conducted by younger colleagues. He also hiked, snow-shoed, and skied cross country in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies.
Dedicated to environmental concerns, derived in no small part from his groundwater research, he supported various environmental organizations and wrote letters to local politicians and newspaper editors about issues of concern.
Larry recalled his time on the Hill in his 50th reunion yearbook: “Great years of swimming with friend and coach Eric MacDonald. Cocktail parties and dinners with the faculty at the TDX house. Houseparties, Sunday morning gin and juice, and the great flood of South Dorm.” He also recalled in a 2012 communication: “Physics with Jim Ring and company. Discussions on literature, history, and whatever.” Most enduring, perhaps, was “learning to think critically, effectively communicate, and [explore] new horizons.”
Larry remained close to many friends he made on the Hill. Within a year of their marriage, Kate was drawn into that circle as well and, when traveling with their family, she and Larry made it a point to stop by for a visit with one or more of those classmates. Happily, he was able to attend “One Hill of a Party” in June 2022 for a belated 50th reunion with his classmates.
Laurence R. Bentley is survived by his wife, two sons, and daughter.
