Benedict Richard Schwegler, Jr., an accomplished scientist and civil engineer, died on Saturday December 6, 2025 in Long Beach, CA. The cause was complications of laryngeal cancer. He was 76.
To family, friends, and colleagues from the first half of his life, he was known as Benny. To those from the second half, he was Ben. To his students, Dr. Schwegler. To his neighbors in France, he was Benois. And to a few older family members, he was Dickie.
Ben had as many facets to his extraordinary life as he did nicknames. He was a civil and environmental engineer, a world-renowned expert in commercial fireworks, a national champion sailboat racer, an avid cyclist, and a blues guitarist with an encyclopedic knowledge of blues and rock history. He lived all over the United States and the world: the midwest, the South, California, China, and France.
But more importantly, Ben lived in a world of his own creation. It was a world where he was at the center; filled with fantastical anecdotes and factoids of dubious provenance, dreaming of one ambitious project after another, always pouring the best wine, and never growing old. His world had a gravitational pull that was hard for anyone nearby to resist.
He spent the vast majority of his career - 37 years - at Walt Disney Imagineering, where he was senior vice president and chief scientist for research & development. He often said that his mission at Disney was to "make it safe to have fun;" not just for people, but for the environment too.
Early in his career at Disney, he worked on a water quality project using the hyacinth plant to clean wastewater at Disney's properties in Florida. Later, he developed next-generation "smokeless" fireworks to reduce pollution. And, he founded and led Disney's first research laboratory in China, which focused on understanding integrated infrastructure design to achieve both energy efficiency and "up-cycling" of resources.
His work bridged engineering, environmental science, and the built environment - often focusing on how complex systems like cities and theme parks interact with nature.
But despite his long career in the private sector, in his heart Ben was always an academic. As an adjunct professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, his research centered on sea level change and integrated infrastructure. He oversaw graduate students, authored dozens of scientific articles and book chapters, was nominated for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and held several US patents.
After spending years living and working in France while building Disneyland Paris, Ben became fluent in the language and a lifelong Francophile. As he neared retirement, he bought two residential properties and a small bed & breakfast in Mirepoix, France, where he spent many months every year.
Ben was born in Cleveland, OH, the eldest child of an attorney and a homemaker. He often described his childhood as a pastiche of "Leave it to Beaver" meets "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." He told stories of his paper route, Eagle Scout badge, and a DIY ice rink in the backyard. Then, his spunkier teenage years pulling class pranks - breaking into the nearby all-girls school, and secretly buying an old hearse that he and his pals dubbed the "Atomic Pie Wagon."
He was a serious track athlete and won a full scholarship to the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, where he ran a 4:19 mile. Initially, Ben assumed he would become a lawyer like his father. But at UT, he saw the brilliant green of chlorophyll-a under a microscope, fell in love with the natural world, and majored in botany.
As a young man, Ben spent an incredible amount of time outdoors. He backpacked throughout the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, worked as a canoe guide in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota, and waded through the swamps of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for his graduate research.
He met Jan, the woman who would become his wife of 46 years, in 1974. A quieter but no less formidable force in her own right, she quickly became Ben's north star; encouraging him to use his considerable energy to move forward rather than in circles. He followed her first to Augusta, GA and then to Los Angeles, CA, where she had been awarded a chance to work with the famed artist and muralist Frank Armitage at Disney.
"I'll never move to California because they don't have real trees," Ben insisted at first. Then, when Jan made it clear she'd be moving in any case, he said: "I'll move, but only if I can go sailing every day."
They moved to Long Beach, CA in 1981, and it would become Ben's adopted hometown. He did go sailing (nearly) every day for many years, propelling himself to become national champion of the Coronado-15 fleet several times over and a fixture at Alamitos Bay Yacht Club. And despite decades spent traveling around the world and living abroad, Long Beach was always the place he never wanted to leave.
Ben is survived by his wife Jan, daughters Lyzz and Vera, and his granddaughter Frances.
To family, friends, and colleagues from the first half of his life, he was known as Benny. To those from the second half, he was Ben. To his students, Dr. Schwegler. To his neighbors in France, he was Benois. And to a few older family members, he was Dickie.
Ben had as many facets to his extraordinary life as he did nicknames. He was a civil and environmental engineer, a world-renowned expert in commercial fireworks, a national champion sailboat racer, an avid cyclist, and a blues guitarist with an encyclopedic knowledge of blues and rock history. He lived all over the United States and the world: the midwest, the South, California, China, and France.
But more importantly, Ben lived in a world of his own creation. It was a world where he was at the center; filled with fantastical anecdotes and factoids of dubious provenance, dreaming of one ambitious project after another, always pouring the best wine, and never growing old. His world had a gravitational pull that was hard for anyone nearby to resist.
He spent the vast majority of his career - 37 years - at Walt Disney Imagineering, where he was senior vice president and chief scientist for research & development. He often said that his mission at Disney was to "make it safe to have fun;" not just for people, but for the environment too.
Early in his career at Disney, he worked on a water quality project using the hyacinth plant to clean wastewater at Disney's properties in Florida. Later, he developed next-generation "smokeless" fireworks to reduce pollution. And, he founded and led Disney's first research laboratory in China, which focused on understanding integrated infrastructure design to achieve both energy efficiency and "up-cycling" of resources.
His work bridged engineering, environmental science, and the built environment - often focusing on how complex systems like cities and theme parks interact with nature.
But despite his long career in the private sector, in his heart Ben was always an academic. As an adjunct professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, his research centered on sea level change and integrated infrastructure. He oversaw graduate students, authored dozens of scientific articles and book chapters, was nominated for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and held several US patents.
After spending years living and working in France while building Disneyland Paris, Ben became fluent in the language and a lifelong Francophile. As he neared retirement, he bought two residential properties and a small bed & breakfast in Mirepoix, France, where he spent many months every year.
Ben was born in Cleveland, OH, the eldest child of an attorney and a homemaker. He often described his childhood as a pastiche of "Leave it to Beaver" meets "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." He told stories of his paper route, Eagle Scout badge, and a DIY ice rink in the backyard. Then, his spunkier teenage years pulling class pranks - breaking into the nearby all-girls school, and secretly buying an old hearse that he and his pals dubbed the "Atomic Pie Wagon."
He was a serious track athlete and won a full scholarship to the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, where he ran a 4:19 mile. Initially, Ben assumed he would become a lawyer like his father. But at UT, he saw the brilliant green of chlorophyll-a under a microscope, fell in love with the natural world, and majored in botany.
As a young man, Ben spent an incredible amount of time outdoors. He backpacked throughout the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, worked as a canoe guide in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota, and waded through the swamps of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for his graduate research.
He met Jan, the woman who would become his wife of 46 years, in 1974. A quieter but no less formidable force in her own right, she quickly became Ben's north star; encouraging him to use his considerable energy to move forward rather than in circles. He followed her first to Augusta, GA and then to Los Angeles, CA, where she had been awarded a chance to work with the famed artist and muralist Frank Armitage at Disney.
"I'll never move to California because they don't have real trees," Ben insisted at first. Then, when Jan made it clear she'd be moving in any case, he said: "I'll move, but only if I can go sailing every day."
They moved to Long Beach, CA in 1981, and it would become Ben's adopted hometown. He did go sailing (nearly) every day for many years, propelling himself to become national champion of the Coronado-15 fleet several times over and a fixture at Alamitos Bay Yacht Club. And despite decades spent traveling around the world and living abroad, Long Beach was always the place he never wanted to leave.
Ben is survived by his wife Jan, daughters Lyzz and Vera, and his granddaughter Frances.
To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Benedict Richard Schwegler, please visit our flower store.
Benedict Richard Schwegler's Guestbook
Visits: 25
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the
Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Service map data © OpenStreetMap contributors