Mike Bennett remembered as great father, friend

Cape Girardeau dentist Mike Bennett believed life was a gift, a gift he conveyed to others through his faith, friendship and dedication to his family and his profession.

Bennett died Monday morning at Saint Francis Medical Center just three days shy of his 71st birthday.

Bennett’s son, Dr. Ross Bennett, said his father was being treated for myelofibrosis, a form of blood cancer that was an outgrowth of a rare blood disorder called polycythemia vera. Both disorders, Bennett said, contributed to his father’s death.

Mike Bennett’s condition was diagnosed while he was still in his 30s by Cape Girardeau oncologist and family friend Stanley Sides.

“In the 1970s, it was typically diagnosed during an autopsy,” Ross Bennett said. “Left untreated, the body would over produce red blood cells, they would clot and the person would die.”

The diagnosis and subsequent treatment amplified Mike Bennett’s appreciation for life.

“Had he not received the gift of his diagnosis and was able to be treated for 35 or 40 years, he realized he would have been gone, so I think that created a bit of urgency in the way he lived his life,” Ross Bennett said.

Mike Bennett grew up in the small northern Missouri town of Breckenridge. In high school, he excelled in both academics and athletics and was valedictorian of his 17-member graduating class.

He was offered a scholarship to play basketball at Northwest Missouri State College (now Northwest Missouri State University) in Maryville, but he chose instead to enroll at the University of Missouri in Columbia. As a freshman, he was a “walk on” with the Tigers football team.

“He was a shy, country farm boy,” Ross Bennett said. “He didn’t have a scholarship, was not recruited, nobody knew him, but through a lot of hard work, he became an All-America player at defensive end.”

Bennett helped the Tigers to a Big Eight Conference championship as well as appearances against Alabama in the 1968 Gator Bowl and against Penn State in the 1970 Orange Bowl, the last time Mizzou played a bowl game on New Year’s Day.

Tigers head coach Dan Devine, who went on to coaching positions with the University of Notre Dame and the Green Bay Packers of the NFL, is said to have described Bennett as the best defensive end he ever coached.

‘Dad showed up first’

It was during his years at the University of Missouri that Bennett met his future wife, Gwen Lampitt.

“Mom was a cheerleader and dad was a football player, so it was kind of the ‘All-American’ story,” Ross Bennett said. “They were set up on a blind date. Mom had two dates set up for the night and said the first guy who showed up would be the one she would go out with and, as fate would have it, my dad showed up first.”

After his college career, Bennett signed with the NFL Buffalo Bills, but an ankle injury ended his football career. Armed with a degree in chemical engineering, he considered a job offer from Procter & Gamble, but took the advice of a former teammate at Mizzou.

“One of his teammates told him, ‘Mike, you have such a good personality and way of relating to people, great hand coordination and artistic ability. You’d make a great dentist,’” Ross Bennett said.

And so, after picking up some additional pre-dental courses, Bennett was admitted to dental school at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. It was there he met fellow dental school student Jay Sheets from Cape Girardeau.

“We first met in August of 1972,” recalled Sheets, who would return to Cape Girardeau as an oral surgeon. “There were 160 people in our class, divided alphabetically into two groups of 80, so it took a while for ‘B’ as in ‘Bennett’ to meet ‘S’ as in ‘Sheets,’ but eventually we did and became close friends.”

Sheets described Bennett as a “standout” student. “He was academically gifted and had great hand-eye coordination,” Sheets said. “In fact, he was such a gifted student that he was allowed to graduate six months early.”

Knowing Sheets and his roommate, Jerry Kaiser, were both from Cape Girardeau, Bennett asked if it would be a good place to start a dental practice.

“I told him I certainly thought it would be perfect,” Sheets said.

Montgomery Bank executive vice president Jim Limbaugh knew Mike Bennett nearly 45 years and their families have become close friends.

“We had kids the same age who all grew up together and we also had a common interest in football,” Limbaugh said.

“He’s one of the finest men I’ve ever known,” he added.

Stopped and never left

Limbaugh said Bennett was thinking about starting a dental practice in Paducah, Kentucky, after he graduated from dental school, but he and his wife also wanted to visit Cape Girardeau on their way to Paducah.

“They stopped in Cape and never left,” Limbaugh said.

It was a lost filling in 1976 that brought Limbaugh and Bennett together. Bennett at the time was an associate in Dr. Keith Deimund’s dental practice on North Sprigg Street.

“Mike had just arrived,” Limbaugh said. “Keith couldn’t see me, but Mike had room on his schedule.”

In 1977, Bennett founded Bennett Family Dentistry at 1854 Broadway, and seven years later purchased the former Cape Bible Chapel building at 1200 N. Cape Rock Road. Earlier this year, the practice, now headed by Ross Bennett, moved to its current location, 989 N. Mount Auburn Road.

Mike and Ross Bennett practiced together from 2007 until a stroke led to Mike’s retirement about five years ago.

The stroke left Mike Bennett partially blind and caused paralysis on his left side.

“Dad was searching for a Christian purpose at that point. He knew where his health was headed but he wanted to be of service,” Ross Bennett said. Teaming with former St. Andrew Lutheran Church lay minister Jim Hicks, Mike Bennett found that purpose by visiting and ministering to homebound members of the church.

“That really gave my dad a Christian purpose and was such a great thing for his soul as his body was failing him,” the younger Bennett said.

Not a ‘Hollywood star’

“Cape Girardeau has lost a wonderful ambassador, a wonderful person,” commented Jay Knudtson, executive vice president of First Missouri State Bank and a former Cape Girardeau mayor. “I consider it a real gift to have been his friend.”

Knudtson recalled his first meeting with Bennett about 30 years ago.

“I was a young loan officer at Boatmen’s Bank and Mike was on the board of directors there,” said Knudtson, who remembers his first impressions of Bennett was that he had “movie star good looks” with a smile that could light up a room.

“As time passed, and he became my friend, I could see he was anything but a ‘Hollywood star.’ He was a kind, compassionate, gentle giant. A friend to so many,” Knudtson said.

“For me to be able to comment on Mike Bennett is truly a privilege,” he added, and called him “the epitome” of a friend and father.

“I emulated him,” he said. “I wanted to be like Mike and have a relationship with my son like Mike Bennett had with his children.”

Bennett was a longtime member of the Cape Girardeau Noon Lions Club along with Knudtson.

“His involvement in the Lions Club is legendary,” Knudtson said. “Our annual golf tournament is named after him and for the last five or six years it’s been known as the ‘Mike Bennett Invitational.’ I love it when an event is named after a person when they’re still alive.”

Before his stroke, Bennett was a fixture at the club’s annual Pancake Day, and although he was no longer able to participate, he is remembered with an apron displayed for all to see that reads “Mike Bennett Rocks.”

“Let there be no mistake about it,” Knudtson said. “Mike Bennett did it the right way.”