In Memoriam: Carl “Mr. Positive” Bentson
Carl “Mr. Positive” Bentson passed away on December 18. He was 62 Years old.
A lifelong West 7th resident, Bentson was known as “Mr. Positive” because of his always upbeat demeanor, especially in light of his disability, a type of savant syndrome, which caused him to be institutionalized as a child. He was fostered by Vasti Risdall, who herself was a West End fixture, raising over 160 foster children, many with special needs. Bentson is survived by Karen Koeppe, his best friend of over 30 years who helped to care for him after Risdall’s passing.
Bentson was diagnosed with advanced esophageal cancer in February. Despite his diagnosis, he remained Mr. Positive. “I’m going to live 20 or 30 more years,” he told Tim Rumsey in May of this year. He retired in March of this year from Bridgeview School, where he worked for 40 years.
Bentson was a fixture in the West 7th Community, always willing to help his neighbors mow their lawns and shovel their walks, when he wasn’t sitting at his patio table reading an automotive manual. He was the first person to make a snowman after the first snowfall in the neighborhood each year.
After hearing the news of his passing, neighbors gathered after the snowfall on December 19 to make a snowman at his home in his honor.
Bentson was probably most recognizable on his three-wheeled bicycle, which he’s ridden everywhere in our community and beyond. Never able to drive, despite his encyclopedic knowledge of classic cars, Bentson would deck out his various trikes over the years with lights, windshields and awnings to make his ride as one of a kind as he was, riding as much as 8,000 miles a year.
He’ll be mourned by the entire West 7th Community.
Read more
The Community Reporter has featured stories about Bentson for years in our pages. Visit bit.ly/mr_positive to go deeper and learn more about Bentson’s life.
Filmmaker Mike Hazard made a documentary about Bentson entitled “Mr. Positive” that you can watch at communityreporter.org/a-community-lesson-for-the-whole-world.
