Robert E. Benedict's Obituary
Robert E Benedict (Bob) was born November 23rd, 1918 in Evart,
Michigan. He was the fourth son of James R. and Anna R Benedict. He had one
sister who was eleven when Robert was born and three brothers. But, before he was three months old his brothers; Carl, age 7, James, age 5, and Russell,age 3, all died within six weeks of each other. They died from the Flu Epidemic that killed over thirty million people worldwide in 1918.
Bob entered Evart Public School and moved to Auburn Heights- now called Auburn Hills- in 1927 when he was in the third grade. His father, Jim, having sold his blacksmith shop to Dick Williams, an employee, took over the running of a blacksmith shop in Auburn Heights, owned by August Milderbrant. Auggie died in about two or three years from a brain tumor. Jim went to General Motors Truck, Rapid Street Plant, and was hired as a blacksmith. Within two years he was a certified toolmaker. He later became in charge of the afternoon shift. At the age of sixty-five, Jim retired and moved back to Evart. During the summer he would fish trout and during the fall and winter would hunt partridge, deer, and rabbits. When Bob was big enough to hold a baseball his father was either playing catch or knocking fly balls and grounders to him. This suited him very well. As an eighty pound 3'6", twelve-year-old he was full time second baseman with the Auburn Heights Men's Class A Team. Bob didn't get a lot of hits but he seemed to always be on base. He was so small the pitchers couldn't pitch to him. Most of the hits that he did get were either leg hits to shortstop or wrong field to right field. He also played in a class "C" kid's league in Pontiac for the Red Caps. The Cook-Nelson American Legion team came after Bob to play second base for them when he was fourteen. A former Professional Minor League catcher coached him by the name of Steven Griffen. Griffen spotted something in Bob's warm up swings both right and left-handed. He suggested Bob take batting practice also on the left side of the plate. Griffen's logic was"there are a lot more right handed pitchers than there were lefties." "In addition" added Griffen, "as a lefty you are one step closer to first base."He became an effective switch hitter. At seventeen Bob also played for Superior Metal in the Class A Men's League. Usually a second baseman he often was a third baseman because his arm was a "gun". Bob could throw head high from deep third to first base. On occasion when the first baseman was out Bob played that position. Being a good hitter, Bob usually batted either first or third in the lineup. Many seasons he batted over four hundred percent. The best was probably in Saginaw Valley League as a senior at Pontiac High School. It was 1936 and he finished the season with a .435 batting average. He was also chosen as the "Best Infielder" in the Saginaw Valley "An League. This got the attention of the St. Louis Cardinals. They sent him to Fulton, Kentucky and Alexandria, Louisiana. He hated it. The hotels were not the best and the food was even worse. He played every position in the infield and proved to be probably the world's worst shortstop. Bob couldn't get in the hole towards third base. He wanted to go to college and the University of Michigan was waiting. He had great aspirations of becoming a dentist, like his idol Art Cox. Back then because of Minor Leagues play there was no college league baseball. After two years and tuition at two hundred thirty-two dollars a semester Bob transferred to Wayne State University in Detroit. By using Grace's aunt's address on West Grand Blvd in Detroit, tuition was only eighty-six dollars a semester. Used books were also available at Wayne State University. The Consumers Power gave him a job with varying hours if he would play ball for them. He had classes from two p.m. until ten p.m. two days a week, otherwise until seven p.m. But carrying eight to twelve hours was a heap and Bob couldn't keep it up. He took a three-year hiatus and carried four to six hours off and on until 1950 he landed Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. What helped was becoming a Deputy Sheriff on February 5th, 1949. It gave him time to study and pass the tests to graduate. Class attendance was limited. Dr. Chuck Fortino, Larry Leach and Bob interlocked classes. That kept Bob astride with the work. He thoroughly liked school and its challenges. Bob was no Phi Beta Kappa but he did belong to the National Honor Society in high school. Honor Roll was a "snap" and Dean's List was something that was on the Hall Bulletin Board. In the summer of 1939 one of Bob's baseball team friends was going to Black Lake with his wife for a week's vacation. He asked Bob if he and Grace would like to join them. Bob asked Grace and she said that "she would love to go but not as Grace Learned but as Grace Benedict." So that week, on Saturday, July 8th 1939 they drove down to Napoleon, Ohio. They didn't know what to do but luckily a man holding a puppy waved to them. He said, "Are you looking for someone to marry you?" They said yes! He then stated "If you take me home I will get you to the judge." Bob and Grace were married in the courthouse with the judge's wife and the puppy friend as witness. The marriage was kept secret until Bob was leaving college to enter military service. Grace lived with her folks as Bob did with his. This was a matter of economics; Bob as a part timer got eighty-five dollars per month and Grace earned either a hundred fifteen dollars or a hundred thirty-five dollars per month. Bob volunteered for active duty prior to December 7th 1941. The semester at college ended February fifth and on February twentieth he was sworn into active duty. He was one of fifty-four who activated at Camp Grant in Rockford, II. It had been a World War 1 camp and during the Depression it was a C.C.C. Camp. It was a few dilapidated tar paper shacks when they arrived. Within a year there were hundreds of barracks and over five thousand soldiers. As aide to commanding officer, Colonel Sebastian J Ottgen got Bob promoted and he went to Fort Lewis, Washington to Port Townsend to Chilcoot Barracks, Alaska then on to Adack in Aleutians. Bob remembers that when they give the world an enema- that is where they will stick the hose. Although on Christmas Day in 1942 it was fifty-two degrees above zero and fog so heavy you could cut it. Drizzle and fog, winds when blowing were a gale. He got to Ledderman General Hospital in San Francisco with severe low back problems. It was thought to have been caused by jumping out of a moving 4x4 while going back to his A. A. Battery. It was so severe that Bob was sent home. He worked seven days a week, twelve hours a day for a precision parts maker for airplane engines. He worked on "piece work" and made over three hundred dollars per week. This was a far CRY from the one hundred fifty-four dollars per month from the military. In 1945 after the War was over Don Kepple, owner of Dixie Dairy 49 North Telegraph Road Pontiac, asked Bob to become his partner. The buying in price was only five hundred dollars down. They worked together two or three years when McDonald Dairy made a great offer, Bob got nine thousand dollars for his share, which was small by comparison to Dan's. He took some of the funds and started Auburn Dairy Products at 3355 Auburn in Auburn Heights. This was a bonanza; earning $9,500 to $10,200 per year when eighty-five dollars a week was super pay. The store had two boys to clean up and one was trained to mfg ice cream. That boy was Bill Kerenski. He later became president of Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida. There were also eight to ten girls that worked at the store. After the first year Grace mostly ran the business. She hated it, having grown up in a drug store and working behind the fountain.
In about four years a man kept coming in and sitting, buying very little,
even though they sold baked goods as well all lines of dairy products from eggs to milk, hand packed and pre-packed ice cream. He wouldn't ever buy one of their great hamburgers. Finally he asked if he could see the books and balance sheets. The very next day he made a binding offer to buy the business for twelve thousand dollars. Bingo! Grace was happy and Bob was too because he had been a Deputy Sheriff for three or four years and had been promoted to Sergeant after two years on the job. He was promoted ahead of about twenty-eight other men but he had three meritorious events in apprehension of armed felons. Being that Bob was almost killed twice; Grace wanted him out. That's when he knuckled down and got college behind him. Special Agent Robert Goebels with the F.B.I. saying he would sponsor him for the bureau approached him. They had worked together on Dyer Act Violations (the taking of a stolen vehicle across state line is a Dyer Act Violation). Apparently Special Agent Goebels liked Bob's insight perceptions and investigative skills. However, in the interim Frank Grosse, local manager for Metropolitan Life stopped by to see Bob. He said, "I hear you're going to change jobs", Bob agreed. Frank wanted to know what, where and how much? Bob replied the FBI; 9,200 dollars plus expenses on the road. Frank asked how about 15,000 dollars a year? Bob asked" Doing what? -Robbing banks?" He took Mets tests, which scaled 0 to 9. Zero was the lowest and nine being the highest. Bob scored a 9 in selling, an eight in learning, and a six in accounting. Grace from his previous close calls with death in the police work was all for it. SO was he. Bob started March 23rd, 1953. He hit the deck running- qualified for Honor Club in his first quarter. The second quarter he fully qualified for Presidents Club by its end. Placed almost 680,000 dollars of Ordinary Life by the end of the year and earned 18,000 dollars. The first full year 1954 he earned enough business to get invited to a "near million dollar producers" vacation and meeting in Boca Raton, Florida. He met the V.P's in Met Life and this was good because he got into some great golf clubs. In 1954 Bob not only placed more than enough to qualify for Presidents Club but enough to be the leading District Agent and Great Lakes Territory leading producer. In 1955 he placed the million and joined the Millionaires Club -leading producer in district- Great Lakes Territory and the number one regular agent in the whole Met Life Company, which at the time had about 29,000 plus as Pontiac District was created. He was promoted to assistant manager. His staff had 2 Million-Dollar Producers Fred Ritchie and Floyd Blanzy. The Pontiac Mich. District was the best in the Great Lakes Territory; which covered Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Bob was again promoted this time to the Home Office where he built Agencies and Districts for the Company, and trained new agents and management people. He went back to Michigan to manage Highland Park and Eastgate Districts. His last year as manager of Eastgate he qualified 40 of the District for Honor Club. He had 2 Millionaires- Jim Smith and Bill Mulholland. Then while on a trip to a company convention he suffered a heart attack at a friend's house (Dr. Harry Lichty's home in Mesa, Arizona.) He went back as a Metropolitan Insurance Consultant on personal production. The company gave him ninety percent of his management pay for the first fifty-two weeks. The second year he got eighty percent of average management pays for fifty-three weeks. All commission from sales was over and above this. In the final four and a half years, before retirement at age sixty, Bob had eleven million plus paid for business. One year over three million. As an agent and manager he was almost always Manager of the Year or Agent of the year.
Bob was President of:
8th grade class Pontiac Metropolitan Club
Auburn Heights Fire Assn for two terms
Oakland County General Agents and Mgrs Assn for two terms
Auburn Hills Rotary (also had 34 years of perfect attendance)
Paul Harris Fellow since 1971
Pontiac Life Underwriters Vice-President
State of Michigan General Agents and Managers Assn
Detroit Managers Assn
Midwestern Division of Million-Dollar Roundtable of United States
Deltona Hills Country Club Men's Association
Directory of Michigan Insurance Council
Director and Vice president of St. Claire Shore Chamber of Commerce
Member Hill Gazette Post 143 since 1948
Life Member of Million-Dollar Round table
Charter Member Deltona Elks #2739
Elk of the year 2003-2004
Scholarship Chairman since elected in 1988
Bob overcame some serious health problems to carry a four-year handicap in golf at age 62. A year later it climbed to eleven then fifteen and up to -~--~~~ a twenty. His best golf round ever was at his Home Club at Spring Lake County Club in Clarkston, Michigan. It was a sixty-nine.
Bob enjoyed reading and walking. In his younger years he hunted small game and deer. He played baseball until he was in his late thirties.
Robert was predeceased by his loving wife Grace Learned on April 6, 2008. Surviving Robert are son Robert J. Benedict and wife Carol, two grandsons James (Deceased in 1985), David and wife Kimberly Benedict and two great granddaughters Ashley and Brooke.
A Memorial Service will be held 11 AM on Tuesday December 16, 2014 at Baldauff Family Funeral Home, 1233 Saxon Blvd. Orange City, FL.
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