Harry C. Bentley (1877—1967) was the founder and namesake of Bentley University. Harry Clark Bentley was born in Harwinton, Connecticut on February 28, 1877. He attended Robbins Preparatoy School in Connecticut and Eastman Business College in New York. He founded and taught at Winsted Business College from 1898 and 1901. He sold the school and enrolled at New York University as part of the initial class at NYU's School of Commerce, Accounts and Finance, but Bentley was not given his degree in 1903 because he did not have a high school diploma. Later in his life, NYU mailed him his diploma. After graduation, Bentley worked as an accountant and partner at several accounting firms and then served as a professor at Simmons College in Boston. Bentley was the founding dean of the Boston YMCA Sch