Another warrior gone. . .

Ric Beresford writes:

Stan,

No doubt, you've heard of the recent death of Arne Benson (obituary from the Echo):

Arne F. Benson was born January 29, 1945 in Yakima, Washington, and died August 17, 2009 in his son’s home in Coon Rapids. Arne grew up in Alexandria with his mother and six siblings. After graduating from Jefferson High School he served in the United States Navy. Arne’s greatest joys were his children, grandchildren, a great steak dinner and playing a good round of golf. His children find comfort in the fact that he beat his good friend John in the last round of golf he was able to play.

He was committed to the field of addiction recovery, serving multiple treatment centers through his 30-plus year career. He most recently worked for Starlite Recovery Center in Center Point, Texas. A memorial for Arne will take place at Calvary Lutheran Church in Alexandria on Saturday, August 29 at 11 a.m. He will be laid to rest at West Moe Cemetery beside his mother.

_________________

Rick continues:

Arne was previously married to our dear friend and classmate Ellen Van Kempen (' 65), and they have two incredible now-grown children, Michael and Carol. In fact, Carol lives in Alex and is currently Principal of Parkers Prairie School.

Arne was diagnosed with cancer about two years ago, and it was fairly aggressive. A few weeks ago, his kids decided to move Arne up from Texas to Michael's place in the Cities, where Arne was in hospice for the last few weeks he lived.

Not mentioned in the obituary was the fact that Arne played on the Alexandria High School Hockey team, a sport he loved playing when he was in his youth.

In this old picture from the Park Region Echo in 1962, Arne is the guy wearing the scarf around his head. It was his trademark. Once when we were playing against Pierz, one of their guys was watching Arne, then skated over to Ron Benson (' 64), not knowing he was Arne's brother, and asked him (pointing to Arne), "Who's that Indian kid over there?"

My last email exchange with Arne earlier this year, we laughed about that story…Arne loved it! After Arne died, I got an email from Russ Melton (' 63), a good friend of Arne's and also a member of our Alex hockey team. Russ had recently had a phone conversation with Arne, and among the things they talked about was hockey.

Russ shared with me: "He closed our conversation with 'Be good to yourself".....another road warrior gone!"

Well stated, I thought.