Donald E. Bently
Donald E. Bently was a globally recognized authority on rotor dynamics and vibration monitoring and diagnostics, and an American entrepreneur and engineer. He was best known as the founder and former owner of Bently Nevada Corporation where he performed pioneering work in the field of instrumentation for measuring the mechanical condition of rotating machinery. He founded Bently Nevada in October, 1961, and served as its CEO until February, 2002. He sold the company to GE Energy in February, 2002, and in 2017 GE merged it into Baker Hughes. It continues to design, manufacture, and market these products and services under the Baker Hughes, a GE company, brand.
Following the sale of the company, Bently remained active in his other family-owned businesses representing a diverse range of interests including rotordynamics, agriculture, biofuels, real estate, externally pressurized fluid bearings, and machinery diagnostics.
Personal life
Bently was born in Muscatine, Iowa, to Oliver and Mary Bently. He graduated from high school in Muscatine and served in the U.S. Navy during World War II with the 141st Naval Construction Battalion as a Seabee from August 1943 to April 1946. The unit was primarily stationed at Hilo, Hawaii until June 1945 when it was transported to Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands, where the unit helped construct the base used as a command center and base to prepare for Operation Crossroads. The 141st NCB was inactivated on January 2, 1946.He returned to Muscatine and attended the University of Iowa, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering in 1949, followed by a master's degree in Electrical Engineering in 1950. Bently worked as the lead azide and mercury fulminate assembly line engineer at the Iowa Ordnance Plant in Burlington, Iowa. He then worked for North American Aviation and Rocketdyne in California. He later completed graduate-level coursework at UC Berkeley while working for an aerospace company. He experimented the eddy-current sensing technology that was later the foundation of Bently Nevada Corporation. A year after relocating to Nevada, he married Susan Lorraine Pumphrey on October 5, 1962. They adopted a son Christopher and were divorced in 1981. Bently died on October 1, 2012, at his home in Carson Valley, Nevada. He was 87.
Founder Bently Nevada
Other business interests
Over more than two decades, Bently bought more than of land of the former Dangberg Ranch. He established Bently Ranch to raise beef cattle and alfalfa.Bently founded other businesses, including Bently Pressurized Bearing Company, which manufactured a bearing that can hold a rotating axle in place. The technology injected highly pressurized air between the bearing and the rotating machinery, preventing the axle from touching the bearing, virtually eliminating friction. Bently Pressurized Bearings was sold in 2014 to New Way Air Bearings.
Bently Rotordynamics
In 1981, Bently established a pure research organization called Bently Rotordynamics Research Corporation. BRDRC's objective was to conduct rotordynamic research, furthering the knowledge of rotating machinery behavior, modeling techniques, and malfunction diagnostic methodologies. Its mission was considered complementary to Bently Nevada, with BRDRC focused on understanding how machinery behaved, and Bently Nevada focused on understanding and building instrumentation to measure machinery behavior.BRDRC made a number of important contributions to the field of rotordynamics such as a better understanding of fluid-induced instabilities, advanced models for understanding shaft crack behavior, insight into rubbing malfunctions between stationary and rotating parts, and enhancement of the rotordynamic equations via introduction of a new variable lambda which denoted the fluid circumferential average velocity ratio and more accurately modeled hydrodynamic effects. Bently was personally responsible for many of these developments, publishing his work under the auspices of BRDRC. BRDRC also introduced several new data presentation formats, such as so-called "full" spectrum plots and "acceptance region" trend plots. Its research findings were published extensively in relevant technical journals, and the research that had practical commercial applications often found its way into the Bently Nevada product line. In 2002, BRDRC was sold along with Bently Nevada to GE Energy.
Other Bently businesses
Bently founded Bently Agrowdynamics, which focused on environmentally sustainable agricultural practices and innovative uses of renewable resources. The company led reconstruction of Mud Lake Dam which had been damaged during the 1994 Double Springs Flat earthquake. They converted the 100-year-old earth filled dam to a rock filled structure, ensuring a supply of irrigation water for Bently Agrowdynamics’ South Ranch properties and improving the dam's resistance to earthquakes, protecting the surrounding community.Other businesses included Bently Tribology Services, Bently Biofuels, Gibson Tool and Supply, and RoMaDyn, a mechanical engineering services and diagnostics company. He also held more than of agricultural land in and around Carson Valley, Nevada and numerous real estate holdings in the United States and abroad.
All of Bently's businesses were privately held, allowing him to focus on a long-term strategy without the pressure of quarterly stockholder reports. This also enabled him to keep his company in the front of his field technologically. He successfully competed against subsidized Japanese companies and from U.S. government-funded entities. Upon Don Bently's death, his son Christopher took over his father's businesses.
Founded ISCORMA
A significant amount of Bently's rotordynamic research efforts were about rotor dynamic stability. In 2001, he established ISCORMA,, a bi-annual industry event. Bently was an active organizer and participant in all ISCORMA conferences until his death.Work with NASA
His expertise also led to work for NASA. He spent 2½ years studying the area where the oxygen and hydrogen fuel pumps connect to the main engines on the space shuttle following the January 1986 challenger disaster.Philanthropy and public service
Bently was a leader of and major financial supporter if The Institute of World Politics. Bently purchased the Marlatt Mansion and two adjacent townhouses for the Institute. For the first 15 years, he rented the building to the Institute for $1.00 per year. He paid several million dollars to gut and completely renovate the townhouses and later donated them to the Institute. He also endowed the Donald E. Bently Chair of Political Economy.Bently donated several million dollars to Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo, California, which in Spring 2003 named the Donald E. Bently Center for Engineering Innovation to honor his substantial contributions. He supported local schools in Carson Valley, and gave generously to St. Gall Catholic Church, Carson Valley United Methodist Church, and a battered women's shelter. He donated land for the Western Nevada College campus in Gardenville, Nevada.
He helped fund the building of the new museum facility built in 2010 at the U.S. Navy Seabee Museum at Port Hueneme, California. In 2005, he helped create a conservation easement with the Nature Conservancy that preserved the Kirman Field in northern Douglas County. He also supported the Friends of Pine Creek Grist Mill, Muscatine Junior College and its Alumni Association, Muscatine Community College, the Lucille A. Carver Mississippi River Environmental Research Station Fund, and the University of Iowa.