Alice Ward Benedict

BENEDICT, Alice Ann Ward, age 93, of Oakwood and Chautauqua NY, peacefully passed away on December 28, 2020. She grew up in Cincinnati, graduated from Hughes High School in 1944 and received her BA in History with a Minor in Music in 1948 from Oberlin College. Alice also earned a MA in History from Ohio State University and a MS in Early Childhood Education from Wright State University. She came to Dayton in 1950 to teach history at Fairmont High School, was a substitute teacher at Oakwood High School in the 1970s and 80s, and worked at the University of Dayton Early Childhood Center in the 1990s.
Alice was active with Ben, her late husband, and his companies from the 1960s through the 1990s.

She was a founding family member of the Miami Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship and a member of the Chautauqua Institution UU Fellowship. She was a former member of the Dayton Council on World Affairs, a US citizenship instructor, an active member of PEO, and a lover of the arts, especially the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. Alice was a graduate of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle (CLSC), an accomplished pianist and arranger, and a voracious reader.


She was preceded in death by her husband, Ben; her parents, Mark and Gladys (Dingfelder) Ward; sister, Barbara Allen (Bob); and brothers, Alan (Ruth) and Fred (Ginny). She is survived by her four children: daughters, Barbara, and Jane Ann and husband, Jim Lockwood; and sons, Ben and wife, Randie, and Bruce and wife, Paige. She is also survived by eight grandchildren and a great granddaughter.

The family would like to express our thanks to Chris Saunders for her friendship since their undergraduate days at Oberlin, and for the care given by Hospice of Dayton.

Services will be private in the care of ROUTSONG FUNERAL HOME, KETTERING. Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.routsong.com.