Dr. Henry G. Bennett of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, native of Nevada County, was killed with his wife and 22 other passengers in a crash landing of a plane attempting to land in a snowstorm Saturday in Iran.

 

Dr. Bennett, who was born three miles west of Laneburg, was the son of the late Rev. and Mrs. Tom Bennett of Laneburg. His uncle, Henry Calvin Bright, lives in Laneburg, and his aunt, Mrs. Ralph Fore, lives in Prescott. He was a graduate of Ouachita College. Dr. Bennett was the president of Oklahoma A. and M. College, Stillwater, and was on a year’s leave of absence, serving of Truman's four-point system.

​

Dr. Bennett had been a dynamic educator in Oklahoma for 45 years, nationally and internationally distinguished figure in agriculture and education, marks his 3 years as president of the Oklahoma A. and M, College, at Stillwater, Oklahoma, in July of 1951. Currently director of the Global Point - 4 program in the Technical G0- operation Administration of the U.S. State Department. Arkansas -born Dr. Bennett has won world-wide renown as a scholar, educator, writer, public speaker, and for his public services.

​

A member of Rotary for over a quarter of a century, Dr. Bennett is a past president of the 12th District of Rotary International in Oklahoma. He joined the charter membership of Rotary at Durant, Oklahoma. Listed in Who's Who of America, Who's Who in American Education, a member of a long list of academic, educational, and honorary societies and organizations, Dr. Bennett was also America's Dean of American Land-Grant College Presidents, having served in this capacity for a longer unbroken tenure than any other. Listed among America's top ten college presidents, famed as a college administrator end college build, his interest in aeronautics has won for him the title of Americas most ardent "Flying Prexy". He is the Godfather of America's vaunted Flying Farmers which he helped organize in 1944 on the campus of the A. and M. College.

​

The reader of this page is referred to an article in the ARKANSAS GAZETTE, page 9B of Sunday, Nov. 11, 1945. The article is titled, ARKANSAS NOTABLE EDUCATORS by Richard I. Caldwell. A paragraph in that article follows: The Arkansas Traveler, so frequently a part of his illustrative stories, has no part in his talent for administrative dispatch. Dr. Bennett is justly proud of his memory that includes among his acquaintances Hattie Caraway, Joe Robinson, McRae, Brough, the Haynies and other men and women who have been a part of the Arkansas scene. As a builder in Oklahoma, he has been equally a booster for his native state. Responsible associates of his in the educational life of Oklahoma are Arkansas men and they include Roy Tompkins and Marvin G. Orr of Prescott, among others.