Industry veteran Maxwell M. Bentley passed away in his home on July 28. He was 93. Bentley founded a number of industry companies during his time in the promotional products business, including Maxwell Bentley Mfg. Co., EM Stevens Corp. and Hill Novelties Corp. The promotional products industry runs in Bentley’s family, with his son Mitch operating the distributor Pride-Mark Promotions, Inc., which celebrates their 43rd year in business this year, and his younger son, Richard, who retired from his distributor Marketing Designs, Inc. in 2006 after 24 years.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Bentley enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1941 after graduating from the City College of New York. He was stationed in New York City, Virginia Beach and elsewhere before being deployed to the South Pacific as the communications officer on the LST Flotilla Command Ship. He served until the end of the war, was at the invasion at Okinawa and visited Nagasaki in 1945 before returning to the United States. He was awarded the American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (with star), and the World War II Victory Medal.
Bentley was one of the founders of the Malverne Jewish Center in Malverne, New York, where he lived for 29 years. He also contributed to a number of charities over the years. An avid golfer and bridge player, Bentley regularly attended the theater and other live events. He exercised and enjoyed water aerobics through his 93rd birthday, and he traveled extensively, including several trips around the world where he designed and manufactured gifts for his businesses.
He is survived by his wife of 71 years, Enid Bentley, his children, Mitchell and Karen Bentley, Richard Bentley and Patti Bentley; his grand-children Scott and Erin Bentley, Jill and Chris Saint, Steven and Elizabeth Bentley, Kristin and Nick Kray, Lauren and Aaron Aggerwal, and Jennifer and Brendan Lynch; his nine great grand-children; brother-in-law, Jeffrey Lawrence, and Marilyn Stiegler, devoted family friend.
