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Today's Featured Biography

 
Allen Bentley

The River's Bend: After high school, I went to Oberlin College, in Ohio, graduating in 1967, and from there moved on to New Haven, where I studied law at Yale University, graduating in 1970. In 1970, I married Judy McBride, whom I had met at Oberlin, and we lived in various brownstones in Brooklyn throughout the '70's. During that decade, I had a series of government jobs---as a law clerk for a judge, as a legal services attorney, and as a prosecutor. In 1981, we moved to Seattle, where I'd been offered a job as a public defender in the federal court. I continued in that job until 1988, when I transitioned into the private sector. The primary focus of my legal practice continues to be helping people in trouble. For many years, Judy has taught English composition at the community college. She has also published several books -- Hiking Washington's History (now in a second edition), Walking Washington's History (Ten Cities), and 25 Sugarland Road (letters between her parents during WWII).

We now have three granddaughters by our son and his wife; the oldest of them is now applying for college (as of 2024).

The Headwaters: My mom and dad lived in the home on Monroe Heights that they bought when we moved to Cortland in 1959. Dad passed in 2013; Mom, in 2019 (one day before her 100th birthday). My brother Doug still lives on Groton Ave and spends summers at a country place in Virgil. He's an elected member of the Cortland County Legislature.


"Just Paddlin' (or Pedalin') Around: A few years ago, I got into cycling. While I was working, I often biked the eight miles to work. Like parts of upstate New York, this area was gouged by retreating glaciers, leaving deep valleys now partially filled with water (among them, Puget Sound and Lake Washington). The parts that were left between the gouges now stick out as islands or steep hilly ridges. My commuting route, happily, was level and mostly on a bike-path along the water's edge.

Every year for the past several years, I've done a multi-day, organized ride involving hundreds or riders. In 2006 and 2022, Judy and I rode in the "Bon Ton Roulet," a week-long ride around the Finger Lakes, that started and ended in Cortland.

I saw my good high school friend Fred Lehlbach in the fall of 2023, when I was in Asheville, NC for a cousin's memorial service.

I retired in late 2023. Not only did I close my law office and resign my Washington bar membership, but I had a retirement party attended by family and friends.

My days now are filled with cycling, cooking, reading, and supporting a family of Afghan refugees "adopted" by our church.

(updated in 2024)

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