Billy Lee Bents

Billy Lee Bents, 81, passed away at his home on April 4, 2025. Funeral services will be held at Christ Community Church in Ames, Iowa on Friday, April 11, 2025 at 11am. In lieu of a visitation, the family would like you to stay for fellowship and lunch after the service so we can personally talk with you.

Bill loved his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He lived out his faith in Jesus everyday by showing everyone he knew love, compassion and kindness. He lived every day of his life because of the great love Jesus provided to him. “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30) Bill showed his love for everyone by how he served them. He recognized his sin separated him from a holy God, and it was only Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and resurrection from the dead that saved him.

Billy was born May 9, 1943 in Hampton, Iowa to William Cornelius and Opal Louise (Wood) Bents. He grew up on a pasture farm in Dumont, Iowa, where he explored outside for endless hours. He was a boyscout and developed a love for baseball at a young age. He graduated from Dumont High School in 1961. He went on to study engineering, forestry, and industrial education at Ellsworth Community College and Iowa State University. He found his strengths solving problems and creating solutions for industrial maintenance.

Billy was a hard worker and took care and pride in the work he did throughout his life. He worked at the Iowa DOT as an engineer aid planning and estimating road projects, the Duff Avenue Texaco, at the ISU plant introduction farm, and as a laborer employed by James Thompson & Sons and Arly Thorson Cement. Bill helped to build Hilton Coliseum, CY Stephens, the Scheman Building, and the Solid Waste Recovery Plant in Ames. In 1979 he was hired by the USDA National Veterinary Services Laboratory in the maintenance department with a job title as a sheet metal mechanic. Billy could fix anything that was asked and created tools for researchers. He was a dependable worker and a man of his word. He retired in 2006.

Bill married Glenna Mae Sparks on February 24, 1968 in Ventura, Iowa. Bill and Glenna created a family having two children, Jeremy and Jessica. Bill was an active father coaching little league baseball, reading aloud books before bed, fishing, driving and participating in his children’s sporting events, working on projects that taught the mechanical aspects of things, attended church together, and created a stable home with dinners on the table at 6pm every night. It was always important that he helped his family camp at the Iowa State Fair each August. As grandchildren came, he did the same. He loved to hear about their life, played Monopoly, was involved with their projects, and watched their music, 4H events and sporting events in person or online.

Billy loved his garage and work space at home. He always created a plan and perfected its final draft with great care. He created for family and friends. He welded, worked with metals, woods, and engines. He spent time working on stockcars and also designed a blacksmithing forge. He was an outdoorsmen – bird hunting, fishing and camping. He trained German Shorthaired Pointer hunting dogs, and worked with black powder and reloaded ammunition. He tended a garden producing tomatoes, sweet corn, pickles, and horseradish. Things we will remember that he created: multiple backyard treehouses, go-karts with “big wheel” tires, baseball batting tees, a model display train table, a teddy bear clock, two tall oak book shelves, a crane to go on a tractor so that the Sparks barn could be built, support pieces for the Bents family barn, a built-in desk at his daughter’s home, he hand planted trees at his home, stocked a fishing pond in Southern Iowa, and always cared for the grass at little league baseball diamonds and at his own home.

Bill is survived by his wife of 57 years, Glenna; his children Jeremy (Katie) Bents of Boone, Jessica (Curtis) Odell of Princeton, IL; twelve grandchildren: Sage, Brody, Julia (Joshua) Dietrich, Corbin, Celeste, Glory, Zebulun, Serenity, Hogan Bents, and Cade, Joel, and Callie Odell; His sister Marji Smith (Lisbon, CT) and brother Terry Bents (Hampton, IA); and many nieces, nephews and cousins.

In lieu of flowers, memorials in Billy's memory may be directed to Christ Community Church - Upwards Program or Princeton Bible Church.