Adolph Arthur "Art" Benson Obituary (1939

Beloved husband, father, older brother, and uncle. Survived by his wife Lila and son Wes, and by his brother Sid (Ellen), and sisters Patti Screws (Tony), Nancy Crook (Frank), and Nanette Thomas (Tom), and many wonderful nieces and nephews. Art was born in Edison, WA, and grew up on a dairy farm on Sunset Road, the oldest of five, to Kermit and Bernice Benson (Boe). Besides milking cows and harvesting peas, Art learned early to love skiing, fishing, and golf. A lifelong Republican, Art liked Ike almost before it was cool. He attended Edison Elementary and Burlington-Edison High School. After a short time at Pacific Lutheran University, and then a break to make sure he did not want to milk cows for the rest of his life, Art earned a degree in Math from Western Washington University, and later an MBA from Seattle University. When he graduated from Western, a local insurance agent and friend of the family, Ralph Walters, introduced Art to people he knew at Unigard Insurance. He worked at Unigard for over twenty years, with a focus on early IT work. Later, he moved to Boeing, working as a systems analyst until he retired. Art met his future wife, Lila M. Benson (Hendry), at Unigard. Still a lover of skiing, fishing, and golf in his 20s, Art was, and might have remained, a prototype of Garrison Keillor's Urban Bachelor Farmer, if Lila had not taken matters into her own hands. One day, when Lila needed a ride home from work, she asked Art, who begged-off, claiming a previous engagement. When she told their boss, Henry F. Mehus, she needed a ride home, and that she had asked Art and he wouldn't say yes, the inestimable Mr. Mehus loudly accosted Art in front of an entire office full of dozens of coworkers, asking why he wouldn't give Lila a ride home. Art, mortified as only the most diffident of Scandinavian shoegazer-types are capable, immediately shouted "I will! I will!" Art and Lila became engaged soon after and married at the Edison Lutheran Church on August 27, 1966. Their son, Arthur Wesley ("Wes") Benson, was born on June 23, 1968. Art was a ski instructor for Bob Hall ski school at the Stevens Pass ski area through most of the 1970s. He (OK, it was mostly Lila, Wes was not a quick study) taught Wes to ski when he was 4. Lila still has Wes' first ski boots, Size 1. In a related story, Art wanted to teach Wes to fish at about the same time. But after Wes (not a prodigy at fishing either, it turns out) lost 2 lures on sunken logs in quick succession, Art decided to delegate the balance of fishing training to Lila. In the mid-70s, Art became interested in running and eventually participated in a number of races, including the Seattle Marathon. He was never the same after that first and only marathon, however, visibly entering middle age as he crossed the finish line. In the late 70s, Art discovered a passion for fine wines after tasting a classic Heitz Cabernet Sauvignon. Around the same time, he began a lingering fascination with growing a mustache. Both pursuits were cultivated with great and consistent assiduity for the rest of his life. Art's focus was initially on wines from the Napa Valley but soon branched out to include the Sonoma and Russian River AVAs. Not long after, he discovered Willamette Valley Pinot Noir and the Bordeaux-style wines of Washington State. His fascination with new wines was intense. That fascination was shared by Lila first, and almost immediately after by Wes. The family made many trips to Washington, Oregon, and California Wine Country over the years. Sharing good wine with family and friends was one of the great pleasures of Art's life. Almost from the beginning, Art and Lila shared a passion for gardening. Art especially loved to design and buy and plant new species and arrangements. He wasn't much into the whole maintenance thing, however. Luckily, Lila was way ahead of her time as a productivity guru. "Just give me ten minutes of labor," was a recurring refrain on Saturday mornings. Remarkable how much you can get done in ten minutes, especially if it stretches into 2 hours. Art struggled with diabetes over the last several years of his life, but almost until the end, he was able to continue to enjoy tasting and discussing fine wines every week with Wes, once the ten minutes of labor in the garden, plus or minus (almost always plus), was done. Art loved being convivial, but he never liked making the first move. That said, once you got him on the phone, or to the party, he smiled the biggest and laughed the loudest of anybody. His guffaw is legendary. Art always loved his family. While he was less demonstrative than could be wished early-on (his Scandinavian reticence mixed with a generous helping of American B-movie stoicism/cluelessness), Lila and Wes wore him down eventually, until once in a while he'd even say "I love you" first. He looked forward to holiday gatherings every year, and spent considerable time deciding on wines to bring for sharing with his brothers and sisters and their spouses, and later their adult children. For Art, sharing wine was one of the great passions of his life. He loved tasting it, discussing it, researching it. It was one of the ways he felt most comfortable expressing his deep regard and love for others. "To wound the heart is to create it," Antonio Porchia once wrote. Right now, those of us who loved Art are grateful there is only so much of loss and grief our hearts can feel at once. We miss him terribly. "The present is holy ground," wrote the philosopher Alfred North Whitehead. This very present, the present Art taught us to share with him. A present he helped us to see, to hold up to the light, swirl in the glass, smell and taste, and really savor; a shared present that lives on in us as a present memory. "Whatever the hands of man take up with love is holy," says the poet George Seferis. In enjoying the company of others, and in sharing his passion for wine, Art showed us how to find and follow a passion that opens up the possibility of shared holiness, which is love. There will be a private memorial gathering in July, details coming soon. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to your favorite charity.