ToquiNotes: Legacy, Decent Demeanor, Gentle Touch and Unmistakable Voice of Principal Lindy Bennett
By Jeff Toquinto on June 08, 2024 from ToquiNotes
EDITOR'S NOTE I: The obituary and service times can be found HERE.
The voice was unmistakable. Whether in person, hearing it at a public gathering where he addressed the audience, or during morning announcements from his tenure at Bridgeport High School, if you heard the voice, you knew it was Lindy Bennett.
I mention that today because as most know, his son Darren announced via social media Friday that his father – the beloved long-time BHS and Roosevelt-Wilson principal with a teaching stint at Norwood Junior High – passed away early yesterday morning after a lengthy health battle. The voice has gone silent.
Before going silent, it resonated with thousands of students in a career that expanded for decades and actually began the year I was born 
– 1968 – when he was hired as the Industrial Arts teacher at Norwood Junior High. During those early years, he also coached football, basketball, and track.
– 1968 – when he was hired as the Industrial Arts teacher at Norwood Junior High. During those early years, he also coached football, basketball, and track.
It would not take long for Bennett to find his true calling in the education world. In fact, three years after beginning his career, he was hired as assistant principal of Roosevelt-Wilson High School in 1971. Two years later, when his boss Wilson Currey became the principal at the new Liberty High School, he became R-W’s principal.
Bennett remained at the Nutter Fort school for 14 years. In 1985, he took the reigns as principal of Bridgeport High School and the accolades for the school and himself began in a never-ending flurry and helped make the foundation of one of the top schools in the state stronger.
During his 21 years at Bridgeport, the school was selected for the Exemplary School Award by the West Virginia Department of Education for six consecutive years. In 2004, BHS was named a West Virginia School of Excellence and in 2006 was designated as a No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon School. On the personal front, he was named the West Virginia Student Council Principal of the Year in 2001.
Not too shabby.
It was during the school year of 2006, when Bennett left BHS without leaving education. He was hired as Administrative Assistant for Harrison County Schools in charge of high schools and middle schools. In 2008, he became Assistant Superintendent of Harrison County Schools and retired in June 2011 after 43 years.
If you just read that, you would get the impression his professional life was a success. But there is more to know about Lindy Bennett.
I never had him as a teacher, a coach, or a principal. He was never my boss. He was, however, someone I worked with because of jobs in the media and someone who was responsive, kind, and always ready to help – particularly if it involved a student or a staff member.
One person fits a lot of those criteria I do not. He had Lindy Bennett as a teacher and a coach at Norwood, he had him as his as principal while a student at Roosevelt-Wilson, and eventually had him as his boss.
“He is the one who recommended me to be hired in 1998,” said now retired BHS Principal Mark DeFazio, the man in question. “I spent eight years as his assistant.”
Eight years sitting at the feet of the master in local education. And DeFazio learned, which we’ll get into shortly. But it should be noted that one of Bennett’s last acts involving DeFazio was one that showed just how much he cared for those who worked with him, he considered a friend, and were loyal.
“A job came open at the County office and he was thinking about applying for it. He said it would help with his retirement. Then he told me that by taking the job during the school year that they would name me as the interim,” said DeFazio. “He told me he felt I would get the job when it would be posted the next year, but that if I was the interim that no one would even apply.”
As it turned out, Bennet was right.
“I got the interim job immediately,” said DeFazio, who was in the education system for 40 years. “I went through the official interview process the next year when the job was posted, but I think he was correct. To the best of my knowledge, no one else applied.”
In eight years with Bennett, DeFazio saw and learned plenty. He noticed up close and personal daily what many only saw briefly and in public encounters.
“He was truly kind to everyone, and he was exceptionally good at being an administrator. He cared about his teachers and his kids and 
was a nice person to the core,” said DeFazio. “You very seldom saw him upset, but when he got upset, look out.
was a nice person to the core,” said DeFazio. “You very seldom saw him upset, but when he got upset, look out.
“Funny thing was it was always warranted. He wanted to handle things quietly, diplomatically. He had patience that would be hard for anyone to match in any profession, let alone education,” he continued. “Those few times, wow, it was scary to me because you knew he had been pushed way past the limit. Then, after it was over, he would come out and apologize to everyone who may have heard him. That’s the amount of respect he had for his staff. He shaped me, and for that and so many things I owe him a lot. I’ll always have respect for what he did for me and countless others.”
Alice Rowe, perhaps the longest serving teacher at BHS, was with Bennett for everyone of his years. She respected Bennett for a number of things, most notably how he felt about the high school on Johnson Avenue.
“He was such a sweet person and very caring,” said Rowe. “He was so very proud of Bridgeport High School, its students, and its faculty.”
He was proud of his students and respected them as well. And after reading hundreds upon hundreds of comments on Bennett on our social media platforms Friday, it was clear that he loved his students too. The best part, those students knew his love and care of them was real.
“The students knew he cared about them You can’t fool kids. They saw it every day in how he interacted with them. There was something else that set him apart from so many,” DeFazio said. “If a student participated in an extracurricular activity, he was there. It did not matter where the event was taking place, he was there to show he was supporting them. That was the case whether there was one student involved or 50.”
I saw a post of a young lady on Facebook yesterday. She mentioned the point that he showed up at “Girl’s soccer sectionals. Girl’s soccer regionals. Softball sectionals. Softball regionals. Forest Festival band competition. Oil and Gas Festival band competition.”
She was not wrong, and it was not just with her class that happened. It was every class, every year, for an entire career. Huntington band event, Bennett was there. Quiz Bowl in Morgantown, Bennett was there. Football game in Mount Hope, Bennett was there.
“Lindy and I joked about him leaving at the time the Jesus portrait was stolen and there was the debate over valedictorians and salutatorians and the difficulties he said he was dropping into my lap,” said DeFazio laughing about the interaction. “In all seriousness, the big issue with him leaving, and it would have been the case regardless of who would replace him, was the standard he had set that had to be followed. I knew I had to try, but I just couldn’t do it as well as him.”
Another thing DeFazio said he could not do as well as Bennett was doing the morning announcements. In fact, it got to the point where the announcements narrated by Bennett were often the day’s highlight for students and staff.
“Yes, they were that good and he wasn’t even trying to make them anything special. People couldn’t wait to hear what he was going to say, and at times he would ramble, and I think it just set a tone to put everyone at ease as things got going,” said DeFazio. “To this day, some of the older teachers try to imitate him and I know a number of students have it down. He knew about the imitations and didn’t mind. He just had a way how he approached things, even with morning announcements, and it just worked.”
That same voice as noted early in this blog has faded to the past. He was the man who was loyal to a fault and had the back of his staff to the point they had his.
The man who took an elevated level of joy from hunting and fishing, cutting grass, playing a round of golf, producing cucumbers and other bounty he could share from his garden, found an even higher level of joy when his students excelled, and his staff succeeded.
Teacher, principal, county assistant superintendent are all wonderful tags, but do not adequately sum up who he was. The graduate of Washington Irving, Fairmont State, and West Virginia University should also be remembered as a husband, father, grandfather, a brother, and a friend to many.
He should be known as a man who impacted thousands upon thousands of lives in the most positive way possible. Lindy Bennett provided a blueprint for educators to follow and a path of decency more should walk on.
Yes, the unmistakable voice may be silent. The impact of the man with that voice lives on.
Rest in peace Lindy. Your work here is complete.
Editor's Note: Top photo shows Lindy Bennett during his speech being put into the Bridgeport High School Alumni & Friends Foundation Hall of Fame. Second photo shows Bennet presenting a Top 20 medal for being one of the top students in her class to Mindy Isabella in 1993. A portrait shot of Bennett is shown in the third image, while he's shown, far left, with other members of the Class of 2013 Hall of Famers. The Hall of Fame photos are file photos courtesy of Ben Queen Photography.
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