In Memoriam: John M. Bentley

John Bentley earned a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from Pennsylvania State University and continued his studies at the University of Pittsburgh. In 1952, he began his career as an Industry Engineer with Westinghouse Electric Corp. In 1984, he began working for Allen-Bradley/Stromberg as Principal Engineer. Then in 1991, he began working for ABB Industrial Systems as Principal Engineer, where he had responsibility for guiding ABB world-wide pulp and paper drives system application engineering until his retirement in 1996. During his career John was instrumental in introducing a number of innovative drive system "firsts" to the North American paper industry, including the first all-digital sectional drive control in 1981 and the first ac vector control for sectional paper machine drives in 1986.

Bentley was a TAPPI member since 1964, and was a continuous contributor to the paper machine and winder power requirements task groups for more than three decades. He was recipient of the Engineering Division's Award in 1981 and was named a TAPPI Fellow in 1986. Her served as secretary, program chairman, and chairman of the Electrical Engineering Committee. In 1982 he was a co-developer and instructor of the TAPPI Drives Seminar and later for the TAPPI Drives Short Course. A holder of numerous patents, Bentley was a member of the institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). In 1979, he was the recipient of the IEEE Pulp and Paper Industry Meritorious Achievement Award.

TAPPI
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