Robert Foster Bennett (born September 18, 1933) is a Republican United States Senator from Utah. Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, Bennett was the son of U.S. Senator Wallace Foster Bennett and the grandson of Mormon church president Heber J. Grant. He attended Utah public schools and received a B.S. from the University of Utah in 1957.
He was a chaplain in the Army National Guard from 1957 to 1969, when he entered public service as congressional liaision of the United States Department of Transportation, serving from 1969 to 1970. That year he became president of Robert Mullen Associates, a Washington, D.C. public relations firm that was a front for the Central Intelligence Agency. Because his company employed Watergate burglar E. Howard Hunt, he was suspected of being Woodward and Bernstein's source Deep Throat.
In 1974, he became the public relations director for billionaire Howard Hughes's holding company, Summa Corporation, working there until 1978 when he became president of Osmond Communications. In 1979, he went into computers, first as chairman of American Computers Corporation, then as president of Microsonics Corporation from 1981 to 1984. In 1984, he was named CEO of Franklin Quest, the maker of organizers and appointment books.
A Senate seat opened up in 1992, when Jake Garn, who hated Washington and made no secret of it, refused to run for a fourth term. Bennett was narrowly elected (51to the Senate in 1992, his opponent being another millionaire with famous forebears. He was re-elected in 1998 and 2004. His Democratic opponent in 2004 was Paul Van Dam and Bennett won by a vote of 689Bennett currently serves as the Deputy Republican Whip.
