Bentley Honored by Maryland State Senate, Receives First Citizen Award for "Making Government Work for All"
Former U.S. Congresswoman and maritime authority Helen Delich Bentley was honored by the Maryland State Senate for her tireless efforts to promote Baltimore's port and "make government work for all' by helping the Port realize its economic development potential.
Bentley, a past chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission, spoke passionately of her decades of public service on behalf of the Port in receiving the First Citizen Award on Wednesday, March 13, 2013.
As maritime editor of The Baltimore Sun, she operated in "the battle zones so that our great Port of Baltimore could compete with New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk," and simultaneously produced, edited and narrated the TV series "The Port That Built a City and State," which ran for 15 years.
"I must be doing something right," said Bentley, noting that yesterday's event marked the second time in three years that she, a lifelong Republican, was honored by Maryland's "reliably liberal" state legislature. She received the 2010 Speaker's Medallion, presented annually to a Maryland citizen for "outstanding contributions" to the state by the Speaker's Society of the Maryland House of Delegates.
In 2006, during a ceremony marking the 300th anniversary of its founding, the Port was officially renamed The Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore by then Governor Robert Ehrlich.