Obituary / Henry Bent: Pitt professor proved chemistry can be fun

Henry Bent had an impressive resume including more than 100 published articles about chemistry and the development of Bents Rule, a widely taught inorganic chemistry theorem but hes remembered also for what he enabled others to do.

Mr. Bent spent the early 1990s at the University of Pittsburgh teaching general chemistry and heading the Chemistry Van Program. He drove a blue and gold van to local high schools to levitate rubber balls with cannons and set fire to balloons in an attempt to convince young students that science and math could actually be fun. He didnt just love chemistry; he wanted others to love it too.

He retired from this position in 1992 and resided in Squirrel Hill until he died Jan. 2 at the age of 88.

Mr. Bent and his wife of 55 years, Anne Bent, graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio but never met there. Instead, they met when Mr. Bent taught her as a graduate student at the University of Minnesota.

I was in lab one day, and he strolled up to me and said, I see you went to Oberlin. Pretty soon it was permanent, she remembers.

Mr. Bent held a bachelors degree in physical chemistry from Oberlin and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, and taught at the University of Connecticut and North Carolina State University before moving to Pittsburgh.

His daughter, Libby Weberg of Duluth, Minn., said her fathers proclivity for teaching through demonstration came from the example of his chemist fathers Christmas lectures, designed to inform and entertain, and his belief that chemistry is a language.

Mrs. Weberg quoted her father as saying, When a kid learns a language, you point at a chair and say chair.

She said, He realized that you should never present a concept or idea without having something to point to.

The program was so well-accepted by students that principals often asked Mr. Bent if he could stay for just a bit longer.

Original post:
Obituary / Henry Bent: Pitt professor proved chemistry can be fun