Longtime Rochester ACS Member Richard L. (Dick) Bent passed away Sunday, November 9 at the age of 91. Dick served the Rochester Section in many capacities over the years, most recently as its historian and photographer. Below is a biography that Dick himself wrote on the occasion of his 50-year ACS anniversary in 1995.
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I was born in Rochester in 1917. but after the family moved to England in 1920 I lived in Harrow, near London, until just before the war. I received most of my early education at two excellent boarding schools,
Orley Farm in Harrow and St. Edward's in Oxford. Discipline was strict in those days and at the latter canings were given for such minor offenses as skipping the compulsory cold shower in the morning!
After passing the School Certiticate exam with the required number of credits, I entered Cambridge University. residing at Queens which was founded in 1448. l majored in both physics and chemistry and received a Bachelor's degree in 1939. This was followed over here by
additional studies at Berkeley and at the U of R, including some evening courses.
In 1941 I started work as a production chemist in the Synthetic Chemistry Division, Kodak Park West, where World War I sheds were still being used as labs. ln 1948 I transferred to the Building 129 Research Lab headed by C. F. H. Allen, working with Jack Thirtle in A. Weissberger's group. In 1950 this group was incorporated into the Color Photography Division and we moved to the main Research Labs in Buildings 59 and 82.
For nearly 30 years. until my retirement in 1979 as a Research Associate, much of my time was devoted to the synthesis of p-phenylenediamine color developers which react to form the appropriate dyes in many photographic products. Several patents and joint publications resulted from this work. After retirement I was persuaded to return on a part-time basis (without remuneration, however) to write several detailed reports on developers.
From 1954 to the present I have served the Rochester Section in many capacities including the post as Secretary in 1963-4. As a volunteer I have worked for a number of years at St. John's Home and have also been involved in the Meals on Wheels program.
My long-term hobbies have been photography and building a scientific library, which I continually keep up to date and which now totals over 2000 volumes. Travel has been a major interest and few years go by without going abroad. This year's trip in August was a little more
rugged than usual as it involved exploring Spitzbergen — located about 750 miles from
the North Pole - and the coastal areas around Greenland.
