Benjamin L. Mercer

Benjamin L. Mercer was born in Maplewood, NJ on August 31, 1925, and died at the age of 99 on January 2, 2025, in Wheaton, IL.
Ben was raised in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, enlisted in the Navy after Pearl Harbor, and served for thirty-two months in the southwest and western Pacific with the Seventh Fleet Amphibious Force. He enrolled at Oberlin College in 1946 and graduated with a major in economics in 1950. Though the historical record is incomplete, it seems he used his reliance on crutches from a football injury to win over the love of his life and fellow Oberlin student, Elspeth Hudson, whom he married at Oberlin in 1952. He took a job at International Harvester where he remained for 38 years, becoming the Director of the Worldwide Dealer and Distributor Organization. He was a voracious reader, crossword puzzle devotee, Buckeye football fan, and a small boat sailor on Lake Michigan who never missed a chance to get his crew wet. Ben was inducted into the Oberlin Hall of Honor in 2022.
He leaves behind his loving family: Elspeth; three children-Amy (Gary) Johnson, Rebecca (Mark) Brown, and Jonathan (Elizabeth Kier) Mercer; four grandchildren-Andrea (Jon Sheffield) Johnson, Philip (Stefania) Johnson, Hudson (Shannon) Brown, and Gregory (Emma) Brownstein; five great grandchildren-Caleb, Sadie & Miles Brownstein; Sutton Brown; and Garrett Johnson. There will soon be a sixth who will be his namesake. All grieve his loss, but celebrate his amazing life, sense of purpose, and good humor. In lieu of flowers, please send a donation to the Oberlin White House Scholarship Fund, which Ben and fellow Obies created for student athletes: https://advance.oberlin.edu/campaigns/white-house-scholarship. A private service will be held near Oostburg, WI, at the cottage on the lake that he loved.