Ray Bennett was a kind man with a deep sense of humanity, a tremendous capacity for empathy and a healthy sense of humor. At his best, as a reporter for WBAL-TV for 12 years in the 1970s and 1980s, he produced what people in the news biz still call human interest stories, or features for short.

He was the right man for that job – built for it, you might say.

Back when TV first surpassed newspapers as the public’s main source of local news – and before digital-age hard news muscled out most content considered “soft” – a feature story was part of a news director’s daily budget. A feature two to three minutes in length, known as “the kicker,” usually finished a half-hour or hour newscast, and usually gave it a feel-good or thought-provoking end.

The hunt for such stories – from a good lead or a hunch or a press release – was half the challenge.

It was impossible to come up with a gem every day, but sometimes the simplest ideas – kids selling lemonade in summer, the firefighter who cooks for his comrades, a woman who makes Christmas ornaments from crab shells – got Ray and other feature reporters through the week.

His stories frequently featured children in some way. They always sparked a smile or chuckle and sometimes a tear.

Charles Kuralt, who was on a less taxing production schedule for CBS News, set a high standard for the television feature in the 1970s and 1980s.

In Baltimore, Ray Bennett’s stories, often produced with videographer Ken Brown, aired under the flag of “Ray’s Way” and helped WBAL tell a fuller story about Baltimore and its people. His stories frequently featured children in some way; they always sparked a smile or chuckle and sometimes a tear.

(From 1980 to 1993, I also produced features and commentary for WBAL, but just once a week, an easier grind, for the 5 pm Action News show.)

Ray Bennett died on July 5 at age 81, a few days after the death of another WBAL alumnus, long-time reporter Rob Roblin, 79.

Helping City Youth

While Rob had a full career in TV news – he retired in 2014 after his fifth and longest stint at WBAL – Ray left the station and the TV biz in 1988 to devote his time to a cause: He believed public school students should have the option of wearing uniforms to simplify their daily wardrobe choices and remove social pressures related to clothing.

“Seeing the sadness and suffering of bullied kids and their parents who couldn’t afford designer clothes, Ray came up with the solution: school uniforms for all students, and FREE,” Nat Harrington, a former WBAL reporter, wrote on Facebook.

Ray raised money to get the voluntary uniform program started.

“It became a huge running news story,” Harrington wrote, “a national phenomenon, a movement, and it saved a lot of families from misery and pain.”

According to the Baltimore City Public Schools website, students at most city schools today wear a uniform — “usually a polo, Oxford-style or t-shirt and skirt, pants or knee-length shorts.”

Ray spotted and responded to another need of children from low-income families in Baltimore – at the digital divide.

“He created a computer reconditioning and repair business, convincing big and small companies to donate thousands of their older computers to him, two, five, 50 or more at a time,” Harrington wrote.

“He provided jobs, trained and paid staff to bring these units up to standard and practically gave them away so kids could keep up in school,” according to Harrington.

Bnet Computers, LLC also repaired and updated computers, whether the owners could afford to pay or not.

“The business was jam-packed and ran for more than a decade,” Harrington recalled. “Ray seldom had time to talk or take lunch breaks. He would put you on hold over and over to work with his customers.”

Personal Tragedy

I lost touch with Ray in the late 1990s. Sad to say, our next meeting took place in a courthouse.

It was December 2003. Ray’s 22-year-old son, Corey, had been stabbed to death one night outside his girlfriend’s house in West Baltimore. A jury acquitted the accused killer, compounding Ray’s pain over the horrible loss of his son.

We talked about it. I wrote a column about it, and I remember feeling the utter unfairness of such a tragedy befalling a man who always had displayed profound empathy for others.

Ray was stoic throughout the trial. He believed his son’s killer was guilty, though the jury was unconvinced. When we spoke in a hallway of the Mitchell Courthouse after the verdict, Ray was sorrowful, but not openly angry or bitter.

“I didn’t go to the trial expecting to get Corey back,” he said. “What I wanted to know was the truth about what happened that night, and I believe I know that now. ”

“I hate the circumstances that befall us all — the violence, the insensitivity. It’s everywhere. We’ve got to do better.”

“The father [of the defendant] expressed condolences,” Ray continued.

“I hope this young man turns his life around. He’s gotten away with murder, and he knows it,” he said.

“I don’t hate that young man. I hate the circumstances that befall us all – the violence, the insensitivity. It’s everywhere. We’ve got to do better.”

• A viewing for Ray Bennett will be held this Tuesday, July 15, from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m. at Vaughn Greene Funeral Services, 8728 Liberty Road, Randallstown. On Wednesday morning, a homegoing celebration will be held at the Vaughn Greene Randallstown Chapel. The interment will be at the Rest Haven Cemetery, Wilson, North Carolina, on Saturday, July 19.