Benson Ford

BRUNSWICK – Benson Ford, born June 29, 1932, to Walter and Ethel Benson Ford, passed peacefully at home in Brunswick on Jan. 30, 2026. Patricia Eddy Ford, born July 22, 1935 to Wallace and Ellen Eddy, also passed peacefully at home in Brunswick on Dec. 6, 2025.

Ben grew up in New York and spent summers with immediate and extended family at a family camp on Lake Kanawauke in New York. Similarly, Pat grew up in New Jersey and spent many summers with immediate and extended family in Groton Long Point, Conn. Their respective experiences at these summer sojourns served as touchstones they carried throughout their lives. Both strong students, Ben went on to Bowdoin, and Pat went to Smith College, and it was while they were in college that the two met.

With upbringings that were in many ways fortunate, both endured their own challenges that also shaped the character and determination each displayed throughout their lives. For Ben, the depression brought his family some lean years, and throughout his life he carried an aversion to hot cereal, which was a staple for the Fords in those times. Nevertheless, summers at camp afforded Ben’s own development of swimming and tennis skills, both of which remained passions throughout his life. Pat survived polio, transforming her rehab into becoming a national class swimming talent. On her team she traveled much of the country going to national swim meets. At Groton Long Point she would swim and sail the waters of the Long Island Sound.

Attending Bowdoin under the ROTC program, Ben spent the two years following graduation serving in Europe, based primarily in Germany. His experience sparked lifelong interest in travel as well as plenty of stories with which he entertained his family, including attendance at the ’56 Cortina Olympics sleeping in the snow in a GI issue tent and sleeping bag. At Smith, Pat majored in microbiology and after graduation began a research job in a lab at Columbia in New York City, N.Y. Ben returned from the service and under the GI bill attended law school at Cornell. The relationship between the two continued to blossom during these years and they married in September of 1958.

After a short stint in private practice, Ben and Pat moved to the Hartford, Conn. area where Ben began a nearly 30-year career with United Technologies while Pat continued her microbiology lab work until shortly after the birth of their first son, Doug, in 1961. Two more sons followed, Andy in 1963 and Jeff in 1965, and the family settled in Glastonbury, Conn. where they would remain for the next 20 years.

As both Ben and Pat had traveled, explored, competed, and spent much of their youth outdoors, they imbued in their sons the same passion for adventure, physical activity, and the outdoors. While time with family in New Jersey and New York was a constant, Ben and Pat concocted numerous family adventures including camping and hiking the parks of New England, exploring Nova Scotia, sailing among the Islands of Long Island Sound, and very memorably a 7,000-plus mile cross country exploration of the national parks and wild landscape of the American West.

While annual vacations were a highlight, both Ben and Pat invested substantial time in building community in Glastonbury, Conn. and the greater Hartford, Conn. area. Ben served on the town planning and zoning committee and was instrumental in starting tennis clubs. Pat was a regular contributor to the Junior League and League of Women Voters and that extended to encouraging her sons to be part of local and regional student organizations. Their example instilled in their children fundamental values of hard-work, honesty, civic mindedness, and compassion, especially for those less fortunate.

A job change at United Technologies necessitated a family move to Redding, Conn. and perhaps contributed to the greatest challenge the two would face in their lives. Pat’s family had a history of alcoholism, and she was not spared the disease. While certainly a hurdle for the family, Ben came to understand how to support Pat in recovery, and Pat, in characteristic fashion, overcame the condition and embraced her recovery; she was a regular with AA for the rest of her life and came to be a seasoned mentor to many others in the program.

In the late 1980s, Ben opted for early retirement from United Technologies and they considered options for their next home. Having always embraced the four seasons their joint affinity for Maine enticed the couple to move from Connecticut to Brunswick and Simpson’s Point. From auditing numerous courses at Bowdoin, to active involvement with Brunswick organizations and groups including St. Paul’s, Rotary, Big Brother/Sister, the food bank, book clubs, etc. Ben and Pat established an active retirement with a community they cherished that was a highlight of their lives. And as it had their entire lives, they delighted in the beauty of their surroundings and the outdoor and recreational opportunities it afforded: continuing swimming, tennis, cross country skiing, boating, etc. well into the final years of their lives. Travel and exploration also remained a priority, prompting numerous trips oriented around education or family, such as elder hostel excursions to Costa Rica and Greece, and trips with their son’s families covering much of the west and international destinations such as Venezuela and Bosnia.

Of course age slowed them down and eventually they moved to Thornton Oaks. They continued community activities, gatherings with friends, and the many activities and friendships they established in their later years. To the end, they relished time at Simpson’s Point and the memories established there. Their vitality, inquisitiveness, caring, and strength are missed not only by their family but the many who knew them and called them friends.

A public memorial service is scheduled for Thursday July 30, at 10 a.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 27 Pleasant St., Brunswick. The service will be followed by reception and remembrances of Ben and Pat at 11 a.m. in the Church’s Great Hall.

Condolences, tributes, and remembrances may be shared on-line at http://www. brackettfh.com.