By JALEN WADE
PHOTO CREDIT Jalen Wade
College Park has lost a community icon with the death of RJ Bentley’s co-founder and owner John Brown III, who died from heart failure on Nov. 9. He was 77.
Employees at the restaurant and bar called the University of Maryland sports booster “friendly” and “a mentor.”
“It’s definitely been a shock to a lot of people,” Ginger Schmidt, a bartender at the 46-year-old Rhode Island Avenue landmark, said. “He touched a lot of lives in College Park, so his legacy is definitely being remembered throughout the area.”
Brown and two former University of Maryland (UMD) classmates, Richard MacPherson, a food broker, and Bill Knight, an attorney, opened Bentley’s in the building that used to house a barbecue restaurant and, before that, a filling station, in 1978.
The name “RJ Bentley’s” is a combination of the initials of MacPherson’s and Brown’s first names and the British luxury car Bentley.
The bar, decorated with its signature antique gas pumps, old license plates and Pennzoil sign, is known for displaying large amounts of UMD sports team memorabilia all over the walls.
The decor reflects Brown’s love of UMD sports. Aside from being a fervent sports fan, he was chairman of the Maryland Stadium Authority from 1999 to 2003.
His attachment to Maryland athletics was also evident through his friendship with longtime UMD basketball coach Gary Williams, who retired from coaching in 2011.
Williams told College Park Here & Now that he met Brown for the first time a few days after he became the coach in June 1989. Williams said Brown was a friend to everyone.
“Certainly, he was a big part of our basketball program, the university, the city of College Park, in the whole state of Maryland, I mean,” Williams said. “There were so many people that had different situations, but John was always consistent. You know, he was always there to help make people feel better. You know, he was just one of those people that you like to be around.”
Williams recalled how after the Terps suffered crushing losses on the court, Brown would check in.
“And I’m sure he did that with, you know, a lot of people, but you know, he was certainly important to me, you know, looking at it selfishly, that was somebody I could trust,” Williams said. “And when you’re coaching, you know, you kind of circle the wagon sometimes, especially when things aren’t going well. And John was always one of those people you didn’t have to worry about. He was going to be your friend. Good, bad, didn’t matter.”
Brown was a figure within city hall as well, according to Bentley’s manager Evan Behrendt, who described Brown as a constant within the city even through different incarnations of city councils and officials.
“They [city officials] might turn over quickly over there,” Behrendt said, “but no matter what, John’s been here for 46 years with this establishment. They all knew John.”
Brown was a managing partner of the College Park Professional Center, president of the Downtown College Park Management Authority and chair of the Government Relations Committee of the Restaurant Association of Maryland.
He served on the board of directors for the Maryland Business School Alumni Chapter, the board of governors for the University of Maryland Alumni Association, and the board for the University of Maryland Medical System. He was also president of the Terrapin Club.