William Stanley Benjamin was born October 16, 1937 in the Bronx, and raised in Brooklyn and Huntington Station, Long Island, NY. Many knew him as the sharpest dressed man in Stevensville, or the cook who spent the last 18 years of his career feeding patients at St. Patrick’s Hospital. You could always see your reflection in his well shined shoes.
Anyone who knew him well was aware that his hands were rarely idle and that he was a man of many talents. His first love was always food and he was known to skip school to stay home and bake bread. The well manicured and snappy dressed guy got his start waiting tables at a fancy restaurant on Long Island. He also worked on and even piloted fishing boats, and learned landscaping, tree trimming and dirt working equipment before moving his wife and five children to CA in the mid sixties. There he worked heavy equipment and topped trees in the big timber, clearing lines for the power company and building roads. He met his second wife, had four more children and moved to the Bitterroot Valley in 1984. He hauled produce over the road, cooked for an outfitter in the high country, worked on a beaver and mink ranch… was there anything he couldn’t do? Well, he finally went back to school and got his degree in business management for the culinary arts and settled into cooking full time. His other passions included dancing, poetry, puzzles and good conversation. Especially if it involved a good scotch or brandy and maybe a cigar.
He passed away peacefully in the home he shared with Margi on March 27. Some of his children and grandchildren had been playing in the yard the days before while he watched from the porch. As so often occurs with memory loss, he rallied and brightened to spend a bit of time with them.
He is survived by his “Sweetie” Margi Leininger, sister Sue (Dan), children Bill Jr (Lorraine) of San Diego CA, Paulette (Mike) of Albertlea MN, Danielle (DJ) and Michael both of Bandon OR, Karl (Stacey) of Bothell WA, Inga (Rob) of Sebastopol CA, Greta of Sacramento CA, and Henrik (PJ) of NM, 21 grandchildren, 20 great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews, et al. He is preceded in death by two wives (Renny and Judy), a daughter, a sister and two brothers.
Please join us for an open house celebration of his life at the American Legion Hall on Middle Burnt Fork in Stevensville August 4, 3-6 p.m. Informal sharing at 4:00.