Obituary of Charles Roger Benson

Charles Roger Benson (Chuck), 93 of Duluth died Thursday, June 27, 2019 at St. Luke’s Hospital in Duluth. He was born on June 11, 1926, to Carl and Elsa (Lindquist) Benson in Duluth. He attended Lincoln Grade School and Denfeld High School. After graduating from Denfeld in 1944, Charles was drafted into the United States Army to serve in World War II in the Philippines on the island of Luzon. When the war was over, he spent two months in Hawaii. The war ended before he realized his ambition to become a paratrooper. He was in the service from August 1944 to August 1946. When he returned from army duty, Charles attended Duluth Business University before beginning his 39-year career with the Duluth Missabe & Iron Range Company, retiring in 1987 from his position in the DM & IR Traffic Department. Throughout his adult life, Charles lived in the family home on West 11th Street until poor health necessitated a move to assisted living quarters. Charles will be remembered for his love of long walks, his dogs, and fishing. His walks with his most recent dog, Rocky, were often along the rough of local golf courses, where he would collect lost balls that he gifted or sold out of the West 11th Street garage. As a child in the 1930’s, he enjoyed brook trout fishing with his father on the Steward River north of Two Harbors. He often spoke of the DMRI Railway passenger train that ran from Duluth to Ely and returned the same day, in the summer during those years. Charles told of boarding the train at 7:00 AM in Duluth and arranging with the conductor to let them off at the Steward River at a point inaccessible by car. In late afternoon they would signal the train to stop for them to board for the return trip. In later years, Charles made many annual trips by plane into Ontario for weeklong fishing expeditions. Charles is preceded in death by his father in 1960, his mother in 1992, and his sister, Janice Benson, in 2018. He is survived by cousins Carol (David) Chilberg, Duluth, Patricia (Walter) Benson Franke, Henderson, Nevada, and Louise (Dennis) Benson Griffin, Woodbury, Minnesota. The family extends a sincere thank you to the staff at the Benedictine Health Center and Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota for the excellent care Charles received over the past several years. A private interment at Bethany Cemetery, Hermantown, will be scheduled at a later date. Arrangements are by Cremation Society of Minnesota, Duluth.