Serve & Volley

There’s more. Much more...

But let’s start at the end—i.e., his 2024 retirement from SVC, where he had stints as director of development, director of alumni relations, planned giving officer, and tennis coach.

The sendoff celebration was vintage Bendel, who eschewed an upscale gala for a trip to a local ice cream parlor.

“Jim told us, ‘If I sniff out a big event, I will walk out,’” says a laughing Al Novak, C’81, vice president of philanthropy at SVC. “He wanted to do it his way. And he did.”

Sporting his standard “business” attire of sweatpants, sneakers, and a wrinkled shirt, Bendel and a dozen colleagues reminisced over sundaes and shakes. They laughed. They cried. They told their best “Bendel Stories.”

Jym Walters, C’96, regaled about a tennis trip to Orlando when he and Bendel served as the men’s and women’s coaches. Due to budget constraints, players were told at a team breakfast to order the $2.99 special of coffee, pancakes and strawberries. Bendel left the table and stopped the waitress on her way to the kitchen. They spoke. She smiled. She then returned with heaping plates of waffles, blueberries, pancakes, and strawberries. The cost? $2.99.

“The moral is: He was always willing to work an angle, make a connection—and he always did it with kindness,” says Walters, associate director of campus life and student recreation at SVC. “He wasn’t trying to get one over on anyone. He was just being who he is—a communicator, a connector, a kind man. He knew how to get things done.”

Colleague Carolyn Woods said she’ll miss the frequent lunches (in which Bendel insisted on only six French fries with meals) and the ribbing (like the time he was playfully given a plaque that read, “Pastor James Bendel,” after he officiated a colleague’s wedding). Former tennis coach and professor of theology Dr. Christopher McMahon still chuckles when thinking of Bendel’s quirky meeting times for the tennis team, such as 1:37 pm or 2:16 pm.

“It was never 2:00 pm or 3:00 pm,” McMahon says, laughing. “He had a unique and memorable way of doing things.”

At the conclusion of Bendel’s retirement gathering, he was given a sweatshirt that captured his essence. It reads:

“What would Bendel Do?”
Wear sweatpants.
Play tennis.
Go to lunch.
Come back to work.
Make us laugh.
Inspire us.

“It was perfect,” Bendel says.

“A perfect farewell.”

“Perfect” aptly describes his lifelong connection to SVC. Long before he enrolled in 1957, Bendel’s relative, Sister Brigita, was one of twenty-five Benedictine sisters to escape Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany to join the order at Saint Vincent. Other family members followed in subsequent years.

Then came James David Bendel, a force of nature like no other. Relying on charisma and wit gleaned from his McKeesport upbringing, he instantly forged relationships with peers, priests, and professors alike. The school was irreversibly thunderstruck.

“I wanted to know everybody, whether they were cutting fruit in the cafeteria or sitting in a big office,” he says. “You have to understand, I’m not a talented guy. I say that with humility. There were things I didn’t succeed in. I didn’t study until the night before tests. I just tried to make my way the best I knew how.”

Boy, did he. Bendel was a two-time class president; a founder of the tennis program (for which he won the West Penn singles championship and later coached to more than 100 victories); the recipient of the Outstanding Senior Award; and listed in “Who’s Who Among American Universities and Colleges.”

“I can’t think of Saint Vincent without Jim Bendel,” says an emotional Walters. “He’ll live on for generations. I absolutely love him.”

Even after graduating from SVC, Bendel remained tethered to the school. That would include his twenty-nine years of service to the Navy (a commitment inspired by older brother Joe and Uncle Lewis—who died tragically in battle in World War II); his time in the seminary (he eventually elected to forego priesthood); his marriages to Donna (deceased) and Kathy (deceased); his devotion to children Michelle, Christopher, Christine, Allie, and Maggie; his stewardship of Adelphoi (PA’s top at-risk youth provider, which grew from one to more than twenty facilities during his tenure); his profound impact on the Community Foundation of Westmoreland County (for which he has helped raise upwards of $50 million); his lifelong love of tennis (a sport he played ferociously into his eighties).

He even has an honorary doctorate from SVC.

“My value system was created at Saint Vincent,” says Bendel, a grandfather of seven who will have a court named in his honor in the future Dunlap Family Athletic and Recreation Center. “I’m going to miss the people, the folks in the Philanthropy and Alumni Relations Office. I’ll also miss the woman at the booth, the everyday people, because I spoke to them all. Saint Vincent is significant to me. It’s part of my history, my life.”

A life that continues to touch so many.

“As respected and legendary as he is—and Jim was a legend long before I got here—it was never about him,” says Novak, a student at SVC in the ‘80s. “Throughout all those years, he changed lives for the better.”