Ben Williams

1930 - 2023

Floyd Bennett (Ben) Williams died peacefully on October 29, 2023 at the age of 93 after a long, robust life. Ben was born July 7, 1930 on a kitchen table in Hamilton Ohio to Shirley Bennett Williams and Shaeffer Standafer Williams. Shirley was born in Kentucky and moved to Hamilton as a young man where he and Shaeffer raised Ben and their daughter LeDale. Shirley worked for the Ohio Casualty Insurance Company, starting as an accounting clerk and retiring as their Chief Financial Officer.

As a boy Ben loved spending time on his grandfather's farm in Kentucky, where "Big Daddy" taught him to hunt, fish, grind flour, and build things from raw materials. (Ben's handyman skills were remarkable throughout his life.) Ben graduated from Hamilton High School in 1948.

To secure a college education, Ben successfully competed for a spot in the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), which admitted less than 10% of applicants. He attended the University of Utah and graduated in 1952 with a B.A. in Business. During college he was an active member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He met Susanne Cutler during his senior year, and they spent the next 70 years together.

Immediately after graduation Ben was commissioned as an ensign in the Navy and deployed to the USS Van Valkenberg where he served as a gunnery officer off the coast of Korea. When the Van Valkenberg was decommissioned, Ben spent the remainder of his three-year stint aboard the USS Dealey, the first of a new class of destroyer. Ben served aboard the Dealey as gunnery officer and executive officer and was honorably discharged from the Navy in 1955 as Lieutenant, Junior Grade.

Ben and Susanne were married in December 1952. They started their family with the birth of Mark in 1954 and Brent and Anne followed shortly after.

While raising young children, Ben attended Harvard Business School, graduating in 1957 with a Master of Business Administration degree. He excelled in the business world, and like his father, started out his career as a foreman on the manufacturing floor. Ben spent most of his career in the paper industry, where he was known for his process improvement efforts and "turn around" leadership skills. Serving in successively higher management positions across multiple companies Ben spent the last 10 years as a Senior Vice President for Sonoco Products Company, a Fortune 500 company based in Hartsville, South Carolina. When Sonoco wanted to shift to plastic products, Ben introduced the company to the plastic grocery sack. He brought manufacturing equipment from Europe and created thin, sturdy plastic bags from by-products and manufacturing waste, becoming one of the first to "recycle and reuse." During this process, he invented processes and products to make the grocery sack easy to use, receiving several patents. The result was the now ubiquitous metal dispensing bins and plastic grocery bags seen in every grocery store across the United States. Ben retired in 1990, having built a professional legacy as a pioneer of innovation, a fair and inspirational leader, and a tenacious problem-solver.

Ben was a devoted father and grandfather. As a patient man with an "engineering mind," he could fix anything and make the best Halloween costumes. His family was his top priority and he and Susanne supported their children with unconditional love and generosity, through college, graduate school, marriages, divorces, and multiple moves. He later showed this same dedication to his four grandchildren, in whose lives he was deeply involved. In 1980, he and Susanne purchased a beach house in North Litchfield, South Carolina where many of the family's fondest memories were created flying kites on the beach, sipping cocktails over oyster roasts, or playing in the water with the grandkids. Later Ben and Susanne purchased a home on Lake Wateree, in South Carolina, where Ben could fish. In 2006 they moved to Charlottesville Virginia to be closer to Mark and Anne and bought a lake house in Michigan where Brent and his family lived.

Among his friends, Ben was best known as a formidable tennis player, which would become a central focus of his retirement. He was at a peak in 1982 when he was ranked by the United States Tennis Association (USTA), Southern Section, in the state of South Carolina. Ben was ranked as the #8 Men's 50 Singles player, the #8 Men's 50 Doubles player, and the #11 Men's 45 Doubles player. At one point, his knees gave out and he was forced to take a break from tennis. Rather than being idle, Ben took up building and flying remote control airplanes! He set up an elaborate workshop in his basement and joined the local flying club. However, nothing could keep him off the tennis court for long. He had knee replacement surgery and, back on the court a few years later, he was again ranked by the USTA, Southern Section, in the state of South Carolina. One of his greatest joys in life was hitting balls with his son, Mark, and he and Mark continued playing tennis several times a week for the remainder of his life. They were on the court just a few weeks before Ben passed.

What Ben left behind, over and above his many accomplishments, was a legacy of character. Smart, practical, and a man of few words; he was solution- and action-oriented at every turn. Few can recall a moment of complaint, regret, or negativity from him; he was always thinking, suggesting, or doing things to make life better for those around him. An avid consumer of information, he was a lifelong learner, able to revisit and revise long-held beliefs in light of new facts or context. His core values included love of country, the fundamental value to society of market-driven economic growth, and the importance of family.

Ben passed just three months after Susanne, his wife of 70 years, of a broken heart in both literal and figurative senses. He will be long remembered and dearly missed.

In a final display of his dedication to information and learning, Ben chose to donate his body to science. Donations can be made in his name to: https://www.usta.com/en/home/play/youth-tennis.html. A bench will be placed in his honor near the tennis courts at the Glenmore Country Club in Charlottesville VA. In lieu of a traditional funeral, his family plans to celebrate his life and legacy by revisiting their beloved beach in Pawleys Island, South Carolina.