Tim Bentley, briefly CL's news editor, dies

Count me as the last to know – having just seen his obit in the AJC – that longtime Atlanta journalist and one-time CL news editor Tim Bentley died two weekends ago at age 55. I don't believe anyone left in editorial here but myself worked with Tim when he joined the paper nearly 10 years ago. That's a shame because he was one of the nicer people I've met in this industry – laid-back, upbeat, funny and very competent.

Tim didn't stay long, no more than a year or so, as I recall. But I got the impression that Tim, who had near-white hair even then, never stayed anywhere very long. He seemed eternally restless to do something different, bouncing between journalism and politics.

By the time I met him, Tim had already written for array of magazines, political newsletters and local newspapers. Between those gigs, he worked on political campaigns for Jimmy Carter, Maynard Jackson, Max Cleland and others. Did I mention he was a Yellow Dog Democrat?

Not long after leaving CL, he was editing Business to Business magazine. I stayed in touch for a few years, partly because Tim was a great sounding board for potential stories, partly because he seemed to know everybody who was anybody in the realm of Georgia politics. But I'm sad to learn we won't be crossing paths again. Ed Bean, editor of the Daily Report, has a fine remembrance of Tim on the Atlanta Press Club website.