ALEC BENN

BENN--Alec, for 20 years president of Benn & MacDonough, Inc., a New York City advertising agency specializing in finance, died on December 6 at the age of 95. His advertisements won a number of awards. He was also the author of four published books and several prize-winning plays. His first book, "The 27 Most Common Mistakes in Advertising," published in 1978 by AMACOM, was translated into Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese and in 2004 - 25 years after its initial publication - into Chinese. His fourth book, "The Unseen Wall Street of 1967-1975," published in 2000 by Quorum Books, revealed little known facts about the near collapse of The New York Stock Exchange. A graduate of Brown University in 1939 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, he played tournament tennis from when he was a teenager until his mid-eighties. In 1999, he reached the consolation finals of the National USTA tournament for players 80 and over. In 1943, he joined the US Navy as an ensign and was sent to Midway Island to help introduce the acoustic torpedo, then a Top Secret weapon, to the Pacific submarine force. A resident of New York City and Palm Desert, CA, he is survived by his wife of 53 years, Caroline, and by three sons: Ted of Aurora, CO, Alex of Los Angeles, CA, and Rennie of Summit, NJ, five grandchildren and one great- granddaughter. He was a long-time member of The University Club in NYC. A memorial will be held there at a date to be announced.