William Benjamin (Ben) Ogilvie

William Benjamin (Ben) Ogilvie, 97, a devout Christian and devoted family man, peacefully passed away at his Grass Valley ranch on Sept. 18, 2025, surrounded by loving family members.

Born in Visalia, California, on November 7, 1927, Ben is a descendant of a Tulare County pioneer family that left Missouri in 1857 to travel to California on a wagon train led by his great-great-grandfather, Rev. Jonathan Blair. During his most formative years, he lived with his father and mother, Howard and Margaret (Peggy) Ogilvie, older brother, Homer, and sister, Virginia, in Three Rivers, California, where his dad ran the local grocery store.

Ben attended high school in Woodlake, 16.5 miles from Three Rivers, where the Presbyterian church founded by Rev. Blair in 1866 is located on a tract of land donated by Blair for the church building and adjacent Woodlake Public Cemetery. At Woodlake High, Ben played football and baseball and in 1944, during his junior year, he was selected by the faculty to attend California Boys State in Sacramento for eight days in July to gain hands-on experience in how government works and engage in civic leadership. In his senior year, while serving as Woodlake High's study body president, he began dating an attractive junior who would become the love of his life, Barbara Ann Garland, daughter of Gordon H. Garland, former speaker of the California State Assembly, and Letha Opeal Line Garland.

After graduating from high school, Ben joined the U.S. Army and served as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division. While on leave, he and Barbara were married on February 23, 1946, in a beautiful ceremony at the Garland residence, which sat amidst a picture-perfect orange grove outside of Woodlake. The newlyweds' first home in their 71 years of marriage was a small house in Woodlake, a gift from Barbara's parents, where they lived with their three little boys, each delivered by Dr. Debora Pineles Schor, Visalia's first woman doctor, at the Visalia hospital, Benny first, soon followed by Drake and Gregory.

Ben and Barbara moved to Davis in the early 1950s, where Ben enrolled at the university and attended classes while working late shifts at the Golden State Dairy company. In 1955, after he had managed a fruit and vegetable stand in Rodeo for a year and a half along the main highway that ran through town, Ben moved to Pilot Hill with his family to become the foreman of his father-in-law's Hereford cattle ranch, which comprised fenced pastures, four reservoirs with pumps for irrigation, and forestland spread over nearly 3,000 acres.

Ben and Barbara were founding members of the Pilot Hill Baptist church, where they taught Sunday School and Ben served as a church deacon and led the song service on Sunday mornings before the sermon. Ben also served on the Northside Elementary School board for several years, eventually becoming the board chairman.

Ben and Barbara both completed their bachelor's and master's degrees at Sacramento State and were teachers in the Sacramento Unified School District for many years. Ben taught the upper grades at David Lubin Elementary School and served as a resource teacher, and Barbara taught English as a second language at Sacramento High to hundreds of students from around the world who spoke little or no English.

After Ben and Barbara retired in 1992, they raised registered Red Angus cattle at their ranch in Grass Valley, site of many happy family gatherings, and built a vacation and weekend house at Lake Tahoe. Ben and Barbara enjoyed taking trips during the summer while they were teaching and after retiring. Over the years, they traveled to British Columbia, drove across the United States to New York, and toured the Washington, D.C., area, where they visited Mount Vernon and Arlington National Cemetery, had lunch at the White House as guests of Dr. Burton J. Lee (physician to President George H. W. Bush), and were given a private tour of the West Wing by Dr. Charles Dickens, senior White House policy analyst. Ben and Barbara also enjoyed an anniversary cruise to the Bahamas and trips to Scotland and New Zealand. And in 2015, when Ben was nearly 88, he traveled solo to France where he was met by Jim Greenlee, a family friend and U.S. Army officer, who accompanied him to the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. Ben and Jim then joined his son Drake and Peggy Dufour in Paris to visit the Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Notre-Dame, Sainte-Chapelle, Sacré-Cœur, Musée d'Orsay, Napolean's Tomb, and other culturally significant sites.

Several years before Barbara passed away in 2017, she began suffering from dementia. As her symptoms progressed, Ben's love for her never wavered. When his niece, Patty Rigg, began staying with him and Barbara several days a week to assist with Barbara's care, she proved to be a great blessing. In addition to cheerfully caring for Barbara's daily needs, Patty and Ben often talked and laughed together from morning to night. When Ben's health declined after a serious car accident a few years ago, Patty stayed with him seven days a week and her continuous presence and constant care were a source of great comfort.

Ben, a beloved dad, papa, uncle, and neighbor, is survived by his three sons, Ben II (Linda Marriott), Drake (Peggy Dufour), and Greg; four grandchildren, Benjamin Ogilvie (Sheila Martínez-Niles), Sarah Affleck (Joshua), Joshua Ogilvie (Tyanna Johnson), and Elizabeth Cambeis (Jeff); and eleven great-grandchildren, Isaiah Niles (Benjamin and Sheila), Nathan, Emily, Rebecca, and Will Affleck (Sarah and Joshua), Adam, Asa, and Ardynn Ogilvie (Joshua and Tyanna), and Josiah, Abigail, and Kayla Cambeis (Elizabeth and Jeff).

A private graveside service will be held on October 3, 2025, at 10 a.m. for family members at Elster Memorial Lawn, 20550 McCourtney Road, Grass Valley, California.

A public memorial service is scheduled for November 7, 2025, at 11 a.m. at the Lassila Funeral Chapel, 551 Grass Valley Highway, Auburn. After the service, lunch will be served. All who knew Ben are warmly invited to attend this celebration of his life. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that charitable donations made in Ben's honor go to Samaritan's Purse (www.samaritanspurse.org) or the First Baptist Church of Grass Valley, P.O. Box 622, Grass Valley, CA 95945.