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Raymond Ellis Benson
Age: 93
On November 12th, Raymond Ellis Benson (born November 2nd, 1924, in the Bronx, New York) of Weybridge, son of Mikhail Benson and Vera (Peskin), passed away peacefully at Porter Medical Center.
Raymond Benson had a distinguished thirty-year career as a foreign service officer in the U.S. State Department [JB note: should be USIA; see: an interview with Mr. Benson], including Yugoslavia (Zagreb and Belgrade), West Germany, Turkey, and eight years in Moscow. He retired in 1987 with the rank of Minister-Counselor, and lived and worked in Middlebury since that time, initially as founding director of the Collegiate Consortium for Academic Exchange, affiliated with Middlebury College and then with the Salzburg Seminar. Earlier in his life, he served in the U.S. Army, in Korea, between WWII and the Korean War. After his service in the Army, he graduated from the University of Wisconsin. He then attended the Russian Institute at Columbia University.
He is survived by his loving family, his wife of sixty-one years, Shirley, their daughter Carolyn, and their sons Michael and Nicholas.
In lieu of flowers, please remember Ray by giving to Elderly Services Inc., P.O. Box 581 Middlebury VT, 05753.
Visit burlingtonfreepress.com/obituaries to Express condolences and sign the guest book.
Age: 93
On November 12th, Raymond Ellis Benson (born November 2nd, 1924, in the Bronx, New York) of Weybridge, son of Mikhail Benson and Vera (Peskin), passed away peacefully at Porter Medical Center.
Raymond Benson had a distinguished thirty-year career as a foreign service officer in the U.S. State Department [JB note: should be USIA; see: an interview with Mr. Benson], including Yugoslavia (Zagreb and Belgrade), West Germany, Turkey, and eight years in Moscow. He retired in 1987 with the rank of Minister-Counselor, and lived and worked in Middlebury since that time, initially as founding director of the Collegiate Consortium for Academic Exchange, affiliated with Middlebury College and then with the Salzburg Seminar. Earlier in his life, he served in the U.S. Army, in Korea, between WWII and the Korean War. After his service in the Army, he graduated from the University of Wisconsin. He then attended the Russian Institute at Columbia University.
He is survived by his loving family, his wife of sixty-one years, Shirley, their daughter Carolyn, and their sons Michael and Nicholas.
In lieu of flowers, please remember Ray by giving to Elderly Services Inc., P.O. Box 581 Middlebury VT, 05753.
Visit burlingtonfreepress.com/obituaries to Express condolences and sign the guest book.
Read Less
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JB: From an interview with Mr. Benson:
Q: Can you say something about your father and mother?
BENSON: Well, that’s a long story. Both my father, Michael Benson, and my mother, Vera Benson, were born in Russia. Of course, their names were different at that time. They came to the United States before the First World War, my father, I guess, on the very eve of it in 1914. They got their higher education here in the United States, and they met here and were married here.
Q: What was the name in Russian?
BENSON: My mother’s maiden name was Peskin, P E S K I N. My father’s last name when he came to the United States was Benjaminovich, Benjamin with an O V I C H [JB -- son of Benjamin?] at the end of it. Of course they both had patronymics in the Russian style. He changed his name in the United States.
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JB minor note: I've had the pleasure of sharing ideas with foreign audiences on the topic, "Reinventing Oneself in the USA."
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