Bob Bennett

Born on September 18, 1933, in Salt Lake City, Utah, Bennett was the son of Frances Marion (née Grant) and the U.S. Senator Wallace Foster Bennett, as well as a grandson of Heber J. Grant, the seventh president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and a great-grandson of Jedediah M. Grant (Heber J. Grant's father) and Daniel H. Wells (through Heber J. Grant's wife Emily H. Wells), early mayors of Salt Lake City and counselors in the First Presidency of the LDS Church.

Bennett attended high school at East High, and he earned his B.S. from the University of Utah in 1957 majoring in Political Science. He also served as the Student Body President at the University of Utah and was initiated into Owl and Key. After graduation in 1957, Bennett joined the Utah Army National Guard and spent six months on active duty. Upon his return, he was commissioned a Chaplain in the Guard and served until 1960.

In 1963 he went to Washington as press secretary to a Utah Congressman, Sherman P. Lloyd, and later as administrative assistant to his father. He became the head of the Governmental Affairs office of the J. C. Penney Company in 1965 but resigned from Penney's to accept an appointment in the Nixon Administration, as Director of Congressional Affairs in the United States Department of Transportation. He held this position through 1969 and 1970, leaving in 1971 to purchase the Robert Mullen Company, a Washington, D.C., public-relations company. While at Mullen, Bennett was chair of several dummy committees that funneled corporate donations into Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign

Bennett's principal client was the CIA-aligned Summa Corporation, the holding company of billionaire Howard Hughes. In 1974, after his CIA ties and those of the Mullen Company had been revealed by the Watergate scandal.

He subsequently became chairman of American Computer Corporation, and then president of the Microsonics Corporation, a public firm listed on NASDAQ. In 1984, Bennett was named as the CEO of the Franklin International Institute, a startup that produced Franklin Day Planners and grew into Franklin Quest, which was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1992. After being named Entrepreneur of the Year for the Rocky Mountain Region by Inc. Magazine, he stepped down as CEO in 1991, prior to his run for the Senate.

Health care

Bennett was an opponent of public health care and blamed government policies for the high cost of insurance. He voted against proposals to expand government health care, such as those that would let Medicare negotiate in bulk with drug companies or those that would enroll more children in federally provided insurance. He also voted against the State Children's Health Insurance Program. During his final Senate campaign, he stated that high taxes were causing insurers to pass the costs off to customers. He believed that new drugs were not being properly developed because pharmaceutical companies feared lawsuits if unexpected side effects occurred.

Bennett was the lead Republican sponsor of the Healthy Americans Act, championed by Democratic Senator Ron Wyden.

In 1962, Bennett married Joyce McKay, a granddaughter of David O. McKay, the ninth president of the LDS Church. This couple has six children: Julie, Robert, James, Wendy, Heather, and Heidi. Bob and Joyce together have 20 grandchildren.

Bennett died on May 4, 2016, aged 82, at his home in Arlington, Virginia, after suffering from pancreatic cancer and a stroke.

Bennett spent the last days of his life apologizing to the Muslim community for controversial rhetoric from Republican presidential candidates, including the eventual nominee and overall victor, Donald Trump.