James Stuby Bentley

1937 - 2024

James Stuby Bentley Jr. was born June 18, 1937 in Sheridan Wyoming. He passed away peacefully at 86 years of age in Rockdale, Texas on June 11, 2024.

Jim was raised in northern Wyoming's Big Horn Mountains, the third generation of Wyoming ranchers and entrepreneurs. His family and the Wyoming winters shaped him into a man who knew how face life's challenges with tenacity, grace, and humor.

A lifelong learner, Jim prioritized wisdom and understanding. He earned a BA in Philosophy from the University of Wyoming, a Masters in Sacred Theology from Yale Divinity School, and also attended the Virginia Theological Seminary. After deciding counseling was his main calling, he completed his PhD in 1975 at the University of Texas at Austin in Counseling Psychology. He spent the next 35 years cultivating a successful and innovative practice as a psychologist.

A teacher at heart, Jim helped establish an inner city chaplain ministry program in Cleveland, OH. He also taught theology and history at St. Stephen's Episcopal School where he was assistant to the Headmaster, and in his later years he led Sunday school classes for teens at St. Elias Orthodox Church and served as an adjunct professor of masters level pastoral counseling at the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest in Austin.

He was an eternally creative individual with gifts for writing, painting, and music. Drumming was a life long passion. He recorded jazz albums in college and drummed for years with a jazz band that played Sunday nights at the old Capital Oyster Bar in Austin. His love for rhythm stayed with him to his final years, and he would happily drum with his cane, his utensils, his fingertips or his shoes, transforming the mundane into music.

He loved his wife Carol deeply. They shared their enjoyment of the outdoors on their land in Blue, Texas spending later years painting, writing poetry, and pondering. Jim was generous to a fault, someone who saw the beauty in all people, and a jokester who delighted in making others laugh with a good pun or play on words. He had a large, extended family and was cherished by all of us.

Jim is predeceased by this parents, Fanny R. and James S. Bentley Sr., Big Horn, WY and his sister Elizabeth B. Shelton, Sheridan, WY. He is survived by his loving wife Carol Bentley and step daughter Tracie O'Dell; daughter Jennifer (Desmond) Kidd; son Christopher (Sarah) Bentley; daughter Allison Lince-Bentley (Nat Washington); former step sons Joshua Calder (Lucy Park) and Nicholas Calder (Jill Ische); grandchildren Kai Kidd, Vivian Bentley, Nathaniel and Serafina Washington, and nieces Beth Shelton and Debbie (Calvin) Gundlach, and nephew Rick (Chris) Shelton.

Our family extends appreciation for the memory care staff at Rockdale Estates and special gratitude for Sharon Crawford for her care and companionship.

A memorial service will be held on July 20, 2024 at 12:00 p.m. at The Chapel at The Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest, 501 East 32nd Street, Austin, Texas 78705.