Evelyn (Rose) Benson

Evelyn Rose Benson died on October 20, 2024 at the age of 100. With equal parts brilliance, compassion and wit, she dedicated her life to helping others as a public health nurse, educator, author, and mentor.

Evelyn, the youngest of four children, was born at home in Plymouth, Pennsylvania, in March 1924, to Bessie (Osheroff) and Louis Rose. In December 1941, during Evelyn’s first year of college, Pearl Harbor was attacked. Evelyn responded to the nation’s critical nursing shortage by leaving college to enter the Nurses’ Training School at Jewish Hospital in Philadelphia and enlisting in the United States Cadet Nurse Corps.

After obtaining her R.N. in 1946, Evelyn joined the Visiting Nurse Society of Philadelphia. She sought additional public health training, earning a Certificate in Public Health Nursing and a B.S. in Education at the University of Pennsylvania. Her work in venereal disease control at Penn gave her the opportunity to join a World Health Organization venereal disease team deployed to northern India in 1949. She was the sole woman and the sole nurse on the team, and recalled traveling by hill pony through the foothills of the Himalayas to visit her patients.

In 1955, she received her M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health. Her nursing practice included school nursing in Philadelphia, rural public health nursing in Ohio, and community gerontological nursing in Chester, PA. She later taught at Widener College and Temple University and was Assistant Dean of the School of Nursing at LaSalle University when she retired in 1994. She co-authored the textbook Community Health and Nursing Practice and wrote dozens of articles on public health nursing, international nursing and nursing history.

She was awarded a travel grant from the NIH to study gerontology in the former Soviet Union in 1977 and served as a Pennsylvania delegate to the first White House Conference on Aging in 1981. She also conducted dozens of interviews with Jewish nurses for her book, As We See Ourselves: Jewish Women in Nursing.

In collaboration with her lexicographer husband Morton Benson and a British co-author, she compiled the BBI Combinatory Dictionary of English Verbal Collocations, for which the authors were awarded a Certificate of Special Merit at Buckingham Palace in 1987.

In retirement, she established the Evelyn Benson Leadership Endowment at the Nursing Foundation of Pennsylvania to support Pennsylvania nursing students. She continued to mentor and inspire generations of nurses, including the students assigned to her senior living residence, as well as her own grandson.

When she moved to Boston, Evelyn volunteered in the library of the Museum of Science, attended classes, exercised regularly (including pushups and bench presses on her 100th birthday), listened to books on tape, and stayed in touch with family and friends of all ages. She amazed all with her resilience and positive attitude, including her signature responses of “Press on!“ and Couldn’t be better!” Evelyn’s sharp and inquisitive mind, her engagement with world affairs, history, religion, and politics, her interest in others’ health and well-being, and her encyclopedic knowledge of movies were astounding.

Evelyn was predeceased by her beloved husband Morton Benson and siblings Anne, Alec and Isadore. She is survived by her daughters, Rebecca Benson (Arthur Kreiger) and Miriam Benson; grandchildren Hannah (Eric Merchant), Elana (Samuel Verran), and Adin Kreiger-Benson and Gilah, Tsvi, Tova and Noam Benson-Tilsen; and great-grandchildren Emmitt and Eloise Verran.

Funeral services will be held at Mt Lebanon Cemetery Association, Iselin, NJ, on Wednesday October 23, 12:30 PM. Meet at cemetery office. GPS address: 189 Gill Lane, Iselin, NJ 08830.

Livestream viewing will be available using the following zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83788858000?pwd=7aIx4v8hZMiW1yRNRFu9DB9bJbIauR.1

Meeting ID: 837 8885 8000, Passcode: Ascend

Shiva will be observed at the home of Rebecca Benson and Arthur Kreiger, Belmont MA, Saturday night Oct. 26 (7:00 -- 9:00 PM); Sunday night, Oct. 27, from 7:00-9:00 PM; and Monday, Oct. 28, from 2:00 -- 4:00 and 7:00 - 9:00 PM, with minyanim at 7:30 PM each evening.

A memorial gathering will be held on Sunday Oct. 27, at 1:30 PM, at 100 Centre St., Brookline, in the 10th Floor Skyline Cafe.

Shiva will be observed at the home of Miriam Benson, New Haven CT, from Tues. morning Oct. 29 through Thurs. morning Oct. 31, with minyanim at 7:45 AM each morning and 7:45 PM each evening.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in Evelyn’s memory may be made to Planned Parenthood Federation of America; Nursing Foundation of Pennsylvania, World Jewish Congress, or Hostages and Missing Families Forum.