Tom "Tombo" E Benson
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Tom's obituary
Tom was born on Tuesday the 3rd of August to Thomas & Ella Benson. Thomas was a diligent farmer and Ella was a wonderful and loving mother and housewife. He attended the Orleans one room schoolhouse and proceeded to Cresco high school, graduated in 1955 and continued to Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa from 1955-1959 with a degree in Agricultural Journalism.
In 1959 he moved to St. Paul, Minnesota and started work with Webb Publishing as an associate editor with The Farmer magazine. It was during this time that Tom met Gerie Johnson and they were married in 1962. They had 3 children: Jennifer Cecil, Sarah Jane, and T Nathan Louis. In 1971 Tom received the Minnesota Bush Foundation Fellowship and graduated from Harvard University with his PMD in 1972. Tom continued his advancement with Webb publishing for the next 24 years until 1983.
In 1983 Tom, Gerie and Nathan moved to Des Moines, Iowa and he started at Meredith Publishing Services and from 1987-1996 he started up and launched as Publisher, Midwest Living magazine, his greatest work accomplishment.
From 1998-2007 Tom worked independently with his Benson Publishing project in Minneapolis. Here he created his self-sufficient Networking Newsletter with a peak of 8000 readers. He retired from publishing all together in 2010 after 51 years as a journalist and lover of words, speech, and grammar.
In 2018 Tom and Gerie moved to Rochester to be closer to their daughter Jenna and good medical facilities. He passed away peacefully on Tuesday May 23rd, 2023, in Madonna Towers assisted living near his loving wife Gerie after 60 wonderful years of marriage at 85 years old. Tom was preceded in death by his mother Ella, father Thomas and his loving daughter Sarah in 2017.
He will always be loved and remembered as a loving friend, father and husband for his kind spoken manner, levelheaded temper and his love for his family and his best-known quote “So much to learn, and such little time”. Love you Tombo!
Written by Nathan, Jenna, and Gerie
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