Profiles

              PROFILES
HARRY CLARK BENTLEY
(1877-1967)
By Edward James Gurry Bentley College
Background
Harry Clark Bentley was born in Harwinton, Connecticut, on February 28, 1877, to George Daniel and Sarach Louise (Blakeslee) Bentley. He passed away on Sunday, November 5, 1967, in Lenoir Hospital, Kinston, North Carolina. Although he never formally gradu-ated from high school he continued his preparatory education at Robbins Preparatory School, Norfolk, Connecticut, and at Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie, New York. At the age of nineteen, Mr. Bentley founded Winsted Business College where he served as teacher and proprietor from 1898 to 1901. This college became the third largest in that state. Aware of his lack of academic prowess in accountancy he sold this school and returned to New York Univer-sity and became a member of its initial graduating class. Married to J. Belle Crasper of East Park, New York, and father to Ina Mai Robinson (late Mrs. Chester Robinson) and Belle Louise Bradley (Mrs. J. Earl Bradley) he set out to remedy his limitations in account-ing by working days and studying nights as a member of the first class of New York University's School of Commerce, Accounts and Finance. At the 1903 graduation exercises Mr. Bentley did not re-ceive his degree owing to his lack of a formal high school educa-tion. Mr. Bentley's later accomplishments caused the University to mail him his Bachelor's of Commercial Science. Acknowledgment of this degree was infrequently mentioned on his business or per-sonal stationary.
Public Experience
Mr. Bentley began work as a public accountant for Smith, Reckitt, Clarke, & Co., Certified Public Accountants, in 1901. He later helped establish the firm of Bentley, Moyer & Laird which enjoyed a brief two-year existence. He worked for the Audit Co., of New York from 1907 through 1908; he served as chief accountant for a group of