John Bentia*
Class of 1957
- President Alliance Manufacturing Company
Work hard, take each job as it comes, and look for opportunities.
John Bentia's parents were immigrants from Romania who met in the United States. His father was a laborer at a foundry shop and his mother worked in a factory.
Bentia got his first job at the age of five, selling newspapers to help support the family. While going to school, he worked on neighboring farm and construction crews.
Bentia graduated from Ohio's Mount Union College in 1940, having worked his way through school operating presses and working in a nearby forging plant. After graduating from Mount Union, Bentia got a job at Alliance Manufacturing Company as a stock boy. He quickly worked his way up the ladder by moving into the sales and purchasing departments. He later became vice president in charge of sales, vice president of the company as a whole, executive vice president, and then president.