Quincy Bent (July 28, 1879–May 5, 1955) was an American businessman who served as vice president of

Bethlehem Steel The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was an American steelmaking company headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. For most of the 20th century, it was one of the world's largest steel producing and shipbuilding companies. At the height of its succe ...

Early life

Bent was born on July 28, 1879 in Steelton, Pennsylvania to Luther Stedman Bent, superintendent of the

Pennsylvania Steel Company The Pennsylvania Steel Company was the name of two Pennsylvania steel companies. The original company was established in late 1865 by: J. Edgar Thomson, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, Samuel Morse Felton Sr., recently retired president of ...

's plant at Steelton, and Mary Stearns Felton Bent, daughter of Pennsylvania Steel president Samuel Morse Felton Sr. When Felton died in 1889, Luther S. Bent succeed him as president and the family relocated to

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Career

Bent graduated from

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a col ...

in 1901, and began working at Pennsylvania Steel's Steelton plant. In 1909, he was named assistant to the president of the Maryland Steel Company, a subsidiary of Pennsylvania Steel. In 1916, Pennsylvania Steel was acquired by

and Bent became general manager of the Steelton plant. Bethlehem chairman Charles M. Schwab described Bent as "the biggest asset we bought in Pennsylvania Steel". In 1918 he was appointed vice president in charge of steel division operations, which placed him in charge of all the company's steel plants. During World War II, Bent was a member of the Steel Advisory Committee of the Army and Navy Munitions Board, and chaired two committees of the

War Production Board The War Production Board (WPB) was an agency of the United States government that supervised war production during World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt established it in January 1942, with Executive Order 9024. The WPB replaced the Sup ...

. In 1944, Bent was awarded the American Iron and Steel Institute's Gary Medal "for outstanding leadership in the art of steel production and in contributions to the development of alloy steels to meet the needs of war emergency". Bent retired on November 1, 1947, but remained on as a director and vice president in an advisory and consulting capacity until December 31, 1947. Bent was also a trustee of Williams College and a member of the American Iron and Steel Institute, the

Iron and Steel Institute The Iron and Steel Institute was an English association organized by the iron trade of the north of England. Its object was the discussion of practical and scientific questions connected with the manufacture of iron and steel. History The first mee ...

of Britain, and the American Society of Mining and Metallurgic Engineers.

Personal life

On January 4, 1910, Bent married Deborah Norris Brock. They had one son - Horace Brock Bent. The family resided at Weyhill Farms near

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Bethlehem is a city in Northampton and Lehigh Counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, Bethlehem had a total population of 75,781. Of this, 55,639 were in Northampton County and 19, ...

. In 1914, Bent built Quattro Venti, a 15-room Tuscan-style summer home in Annisquam, Massachusetts furnished mostly with purchases made by Deborah Norris Bent during her visits to Italy.

Saugus Iron Works

Louise E. du Pont Crowninshield, one of the directors of the First Iron Works Association, an organization dedicated to preserving the site of the first integrated

ironworks An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ''ironworks'' is ''ironworks''. Ironworks succeeded bloomeri ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, approached Bent for a financial contribution. Bent visited the site and was intrigued by the property's

slag Slag is a by-product of smelting (pyrometallurgical) ores and used metals. Broadly, it can be classified as ferrous (by-products of processing iron and steel), ferroalloy (by-product of ferroalloy production) or non-ferrous/base metals (by-prod ...

pile, which indicated that it could contain the remains of an iron works. Bent eventually convinced the American Iron and Steel Institute to fund the restoration of the Iron Works. The restoration was completed in 1954 and the

Saugus Iron Works Saugus may refer to: Places * Saugus, Massachusetts, U.S. * Saugus, Santa Clarita, California, U.S., named after its sister city in Massachusetts * Saugus, Montana, U.S. * Saugus River, in Massachusetts, U.S. Education * Saugus High School (Cal ...

opened as a private museum run by the First Iron Works Association and funded by the American Iron and Steel Institute. After the AISI stopped funding the museum it was added to the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

system.

Death

Bent died on May 5, 1955 at Weyhill Farms following a long illness.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bent, Quincy 1879 births 1955 deaths Williams College alumni Bethlehem Steel people American steel industry businesspeople People from Dauphin County, Pennsylvania People from Gloucester, Massachusetts