Helen Delich Bentley

Nationally renowned journalist, politician rose from Nevada mining origins 

Helen Delich Bentley could be considered the most nationally recognized and most  powerful Nevada woman the state produced during the Twentieth Century. As a young  woman from a town with a 1950 population of just over 3,500, she left Ely, Nevada, after high school, worked in politics and in the newspaper business while going to college in Nevada and Missouri. She became staff advisor to Richard Nixon in his 1968 presidential campaign. When president, he appointed her chairman of the National Maritime  Commission in 1969. She was elected to Congress from Maryland in 1984 -1994. The  Baltimore, Maryland port was renamed the Helen Delich Bentley Port in 2006.

Helen Delich was born on November 28, 1923, in the small Serbian mining community of Tonopah Canyon just outside the town of Ruth located near Ely, White Pine County, Nevada. According to Wikipedia, Ruth had a population of almost 2,300 inhabitants in 1923. Her parents, Michael Ivanesevich Delich and Mary Kovich Delich, both immigrated to the United States in 1906. From Ellis Island, N.Y. the Delichs made their way west, ending up in Ruth, Nev. The family had six children, Malie, George, Mary, Sam and Helen. A sixth child died in infancy.

Life in a Nevada mining town was rough. Helen later wrote of her family’s experiences  which were printed in the “American Serb Life.” She wrote, 

“Miners worked 12-hour shifts, 7 days a week. Women often took in  boarders as her mother did, all the while raising small children of their own.  There was no running water in the miners’ homes during the early years.  The women carried their buckets a good half mile uphill several times a day  to get enough water for all the family needs plus those of the boarders who  changed work clothes in the house. The boarders slept in shifts, like they  worked. When one group left for work, Mom would quickly straighten out  the beds and another group would tumble right back in. Maids were unheard  of. These hardy women also reared big families and usually were attended  only by a neighbor at childbirth. In two days, the mother was up and slaving  away again.” 

As the Great Depression wore on, the population of Ruth diminished. Helen’s father had  been stricken with miner’s consumption. In March 1932, he died at his home. He was 48  years old and left a widow with three young children to raise. Helen, the youngest, was 8 years old. The family struggled, but as in many immigrant families, education was seen  as the key to obtaining a better life. Helen attended schools in White Pine County. She wrote in her “American Serb Life” article,  

“In those days the Serbs kept pretty much to themselves. They talked the  company into building the Serbian Hall and there they’d gather for their  drustva meetings and socials. Their kids also isolated themselves, as much  in defense of barbs, as in the preference of their own company. But when  they began walking with school honors, the jeers and taunts turned to  covetous respect. Bit by bit they began taking a more active part in the  general life of the community.” 

Helen was active in school activities and took her education seriously. In 1940 she placed  second and won $2.50 in the White Pine County, Nevada Veterans of Foreign Wars  Auxiliary, White Pine County, Nevada essay contest. In 2024, that would be $56.00. In  1940 she received the Rotary Club citizenship scholarship award. As a White Pine senior, she was named a four-year honor student and designated valedictorian of her class of 1941. She was also the recipient of the National Elks Foundation scholarship for girls and made a trip to Philadelphia sponsored by the Elks. While in high school, she did part-time  writing for the Ely Record and continued writing for the  newspaper after she enrolled in the University of Nevada in fall 1941.  

She was interested in politics and in 1942 she managed former  Governor James G. Scrugham’s successful Senate campaign  in two of Nevada’s counties. He was elected to the U.S. Senate, and Helen went to Washington D.C. with him to work as his secretary. She was never to return to Nevada to live. However, this young woman went on to achieve national recognition in United States politics. 

Helen worked as a stringer for United Press International, then  as a reporter and bureau manager in Fort Wayne, Indiana, during 1944-1945. She graduated from the University of assigned to cover the shipping and waterfront activities at the Baltimore Maryland Port and by 1952, she had been promoted to maritime editor of the Baltimore Sun.  

Her future began to skyrocket. She was writing and producing her own television show, “The Port that Built a City and a State” which ran on Baltimore WMAR-TV from 1950 to 1965 and on Washington D.C. WTTG-TV from 1955 to 1959. She served as staff advisor on shipping matters for Richard Nixon during his 1968 Presidential campaign and in 1969 he appointed her chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission where she served until 1975. In 1969, Helen was the only woman aboard the S.S. Manhattan when the tanker made its historic voyage through the Arctic waters of the Northwest Passage. 

During all this upward mobility she married a local school  teacher, William Roy Bentley, and together they opened  an antique shop in Maryland. As one can surmise, Helen Delich Bently was a self-described workaholic.

Helen served as Republican Congresswoman from Maryland from 1984 to 1994 when she resigned her position to run for Governor of Maryland. She ran as a moderate but was defeated in the primary by a long-time friend and a conservative. During her first term  as congresswoman, she helped pass a bill allowing a channel to be dredged into the  Baltimore port, making it the only East Coast port with that distinction. 

After Helen left Congress, she started Helen Bentley & Associates and began working as  a lobbyist for maritime and defense industries. In 2004 she was inducted into the  International Maritime Hall of Fame in New York. In 2006 former Governor and current Congressman Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. announced during the 300th anniversary celebration  of the Baltimore Port that it had been renamed and was now designated as the “Helen  Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore.” She was described by Michael Dresser in the Baltimore  Sun as “the colorful and cantankerous former Maryland Congresswoman, whose fierce  advocacy for the port of Baltimore led to its being named in her honor…”  

During her lifetime Helen Bentley received numerous awards. 
1941 National Outstanding high school graduate by the National Elks Club Foundation 
1944 B.A. in Journalism from the University of Missouri 
1956 Baltimore Women’s Advertising Club “Woman of the Year” 
1958 Meritorious Service Awards from the Baltimore Traffic Club 
1965 North Atlantic Ports Association 
1965 AFL-CIO Maritime Port Council of the Maritime Trades Department of the Port of  Greater New York 
1969 San Francisco Port Commission Order of Maritime Merit 
1969 University of Missouri outstanding female graduate  
1969 Baltimore Women’s Advertising Club “Woman of the Year”  
1970 Honorary Membership (only woman member) in the Maritime Law Association of  the United States 
1971 Valley Forge Freedoms Foundation George Washington Honor medal
1971 University of Missouri Faculty Alumni Gold Medal  
1972 New York Foreign Freight Forwards and Brokers Association “Man of the Year”
1972 Women’s National Republican Club Distinguished Service Medal 
1973 Robert L. Hague Marchant Marine Industries Post No. 1242 American Legion Distinguished Service Medal  
1973 Navy League of the United States Robert M.J. Thompson Award for Outstanding  Civilian Leadership 
1973 Nevada State Society Distinguished Woman of the Century award 
1974 Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers 22nd Annual Jerry Land Medal  for outstanding accomplishments in the Maritime field 
1976 Valley Forge Freedoms Foundation George Washington Honor medal  Who’s Who in America and many more.

Mrs. Bentley also received several honorary degrees: 

Doctor of Laws from the

• University of Michigan 
• University of Maryland 
• University of Alaska 
• Long Island University 
• Boucher College 

Honorary Doctore of Humane Letters from the

• University of Portland, Oregon 
• Bryant College of Business Administration

Halls of Fame

• 2004 International Maritime Hall of Fame
• 2013 Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame 

Helen Delich Bentley passed away in Timonium, Baltimore County, Maryland on August 6, 2016. She was 93 years of age. Obituaries appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the Pennsylvania Philadelphia Inquirer, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun and the Palm Springs Desert Sun.  This author was unable to locate an obituary in a Nevada newspaper. Helen had outlived her husband, William Bentley, by thirteen years. They  are interred together in a columbarium at the Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens in Timonium, Maryland.

Researched and written by Marcia Cuccaro. Posted to website April 2017. Updated 2025