Thomas Bentley:
CLASS OF 1951
Tucson High SchoolClass of 1951
Tucson, AZ
Thomas's Story
Life
After graduating from the UofA 1n 1956 (Fine Arts) I did graduate work in Architecture at the University of Texas. Worked for an Architectural firm in Phoenix until 1961 when I became the first Arizonan to be accepted into the newly formed Peace Corps. Served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia for two years. In Colombia I met a fellow PCV, Elizabeth (Lisa) Marple, and we were married in Barranquilla in 1963. Upon completion of our Peace Corps service, I went to work for a non-profit organization and began a long overseas career in Liberia, West Africa. For the next three decades I was involved in international/cross-cultural work, both in the private sector and with the U.S. government. My work took me to Turkey, Lesotho, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Belize, Bolivia, and Angola. Both my children were born while I was serving overseas.
Lisa and I were divorced in 1988 and less than a year later I suffered a major heart attack. I survived and returned to my overseas work. ...Expand for more
My last assignment was in Angola. But my health was no longer up to the stress of working in a war zone, so I had to take early retirement in 1992. I returned to Tucson where I lived alone until 1995 when I met and married Linda Underwood. Linda and I live in Phoenix, where she works as the Director of Information Technology of the Apollo Group, I am now completely retired and enjoy being a "house-husband".
I have two children from my first marriage. My son, Thomas, is a computer programmer. He and his wife live in Anchorage, Alaska. My daughter, Carlota, is an editor and computer designer. She lives in Portland, OR.
That's about it, friends. If any of you had suggested in high school that I would end up working for Uncle Sam in the third world, I would have grinned and said, "yeah, riiight!!" Little did I know the government was looking for second-rate cartoonists and even worse scholars to go out to save democracy as we know it. But we do live in a strange world.
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