Ronald Eldon Bench

Ronald Eldon Bench, a lifelong mischief-maker, tale teller, and occasional nudist, died on Tuesday, September 2, 2025.

Born in 1935 to Eldon and Ora Lee, “Big Sonny,” as most knew him, didn’t work hard to achieve his nickname. He lived it. He was a badass and a curmudgeon. He was known to sunbathe in the nude. There wasn’t a Willie Nelson tune he didn’t like. And it always paired best with a glass of whiskey.

Big Sonny didn’t complete his formal education, but life is a teacher and boy did he learn from her—whether as a teenager in Alabama in the 1950s or later in Salt Lake City. He was nothing if not a consistent hell raiser. He caught the spirit of the '60s and a train to California, letting the rails take him further west where the ocean met the edge of everything he hadn’t figured out yet. It was there that he began building a life with his first wife, Carrie Crowe. By 1969 he was back in Salt Lake City where he later met his second wife, Sally and her six children.

When he wasn’t being a pain in someone’s ass, he labored honestly as a painter by trade and was extremely handy.

Big Sonny was a great storyteller—braiding history and memory into something magic that lingered longer when shared around a kitchen table or a bar. And if you were lucky, that kitchen table was also covered in plates of his southern cooking. He learned to cook alongside his mom and brothers, and those early days in the kitchen shaped the way he loved and fed people for the rest of his life. Finger-licking ribs. His savory stories and those delicious dishes always finished too soon. As Amadou Hampâté Bâ, a writer and historian, said, “When an old man dies, a library was burned.”

Big Sonny loved his dogs and cats. He could always be found with a trail of furry friends following him, waiting for the next treat to fall to the floor. People would joke that if there was life after death, they would want to come back as one of his and Sally’s pets.

He lives on through his son, Sonny, and his grandson, Greyson, along with his daughters Sally, Susan, and Shelly, and multiple grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He is also survived by his brother, Russell (Julia) and family, as well as his favorite niece, Sueann (because people who say they don’t pick favorites are liars and death wouldn’t make him one). Big Sonny was preceded in death by his wonderfully patient wife, Sally Leary, who is no doubt already catching him up while simultaneously trying to keep him from causing any serious mayhem, as well as his brother Jack and sister Peggy.

An open house celebration of life will be held on September 27 from 3 to 6 p.m. Instead of flowers, the family asks that you make a donation to your favorite pet rescue or shelter.