This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
While Utahns may remember Bob Bennett for his three terms as a U.S. senator, during his Salt Lake City funeral Saturday he was celebrated as a loving husband, attentive father, thoughtful friend and dutiful servant to God.
Bennett, who died May 4 at age 82 from complications of cancer and a stroke, was described as kind, honest, patient and modest.
"That's no exaggeration, that's really the man," said attorney and business partner John Knapp Baird. "He was the genuine article. And I don't think we fully appreciate what we had."
Baird said his friend "lived a heroic life." And while Bennett was disappointed in 2010 when he lost his re-election bid, "it didn't define him. He was far more than a United States senator."
Robert Bennett described his father as "loving and generous to a fault. He always knew what to do and was always prepared."
Of course, Bennett had his weaknesses, namely a lack of athletic ability. "Dad and athletics go together about as well as oil and water," Robert Bennett joked. But Bennett didn't let his lack of skills keep him from supporting his son, who was an avid basketball fan.
Robert Bennett recalled the time his father agreed to take him to a father-son basketball event at a nearby school. When young Robert asked if his father could dunk the basketball. Bennett made an attempt, but his lanky 6-foot-6 frame was wobbly and the ball never made it even close to the rim.
"It's an image I will take with me to my grave," laughed the younger Bennett, who added that his father was always pleased that his son had overcome the Bennett family's "genetic defects."
Daughter Wendy Bennett Prawitt remembered her father's fun-loving nature. He was known to "spontaneously burst into song," and she once caught him trying out her new hula hoop. He held important, time-consuming government and corporate positions, but Bennett always answered telephone calls from his children no matter where he was or who he was talking with, she said.
He also was the kind of husband who "put my mother first," Prawitt said. Each night when he came home, Bennett would give wife, Joyce, a bear hug and then "roll up his sleeves to help make the salad for dinner," Prawitt recalled. "Because of him, my capacity to love has increased immensely."
Those who attended the 90-minute service included a who's who of Utah's Republican Party elite, among them Sen. Orrin Hatch, Gov. Gary Herbert, former governor Mike Leavitt, former presidential candidate Mitt Romney and former Sen. Jake Garn, whom Bennett replaced when he won the first of his three Senate terms.
Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams, a Democrat, also attended, as did several leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke, as did first counselor Henry B. Eyring, who spoke on behalf of the faith's governing First Presidency.
Both Ballard and Eyring knew Bennett in their formative years. Shortly after returning from his Mormon mission in the British Isles, Ballard was assigned to teach future Mormon missionaries. One of those was Bennett, who also served in the British Isles mission.
"He was a great friend," Ballard said. "An example of what we should be."
Eyring was in the same East High School graduating class as Bennett and Jake Garn. Eyring recalled performing in a school assembly with Bennett. "He was Dean Martin and I was Jerry Lewis," he said. "But we'll not talk about that."
Of all Bennett's known accomplishments, the "heritage" he passes to his children and grandchildren is as a "devoted disciple of Jesus Christ," Eyring said. "He stood upon that rock his whole life."