Ben Frank Sands Jr.

This East Tennessee farm boy saw the world through a 20-year career in the US Air Force, including a 12-month tour of Vietnam in 1966-67. He spent another two decades as a respected professor of management at George Mason University. He died February 14, 2019 at Inova Loudoun Hospital from complications following abdominal surgery.

The son of Ben Frank and Annie Carson Sands of Madisonville, TN, he attended Hiwassee College, leaving to join the US Army/Air Corps in 1946. The service took him to Japan during the Korean War followed by postings at Turner AFB in Albany, GA, Sidi Slimane in Morocco, Strategic Air Command in Omaha, NE and, finally the Pentagon.

At Turner in 1950, he met Mary Lou Ryder, an OR nurse from Salem, MA. Despite a disastrous first date, they married in November 1953. After several relocations, they settled in Vienna, VA for the next 55 years before moving to the Falcons Landing Retirement Community. A son of a Baptist father and Methodist mother, Ben nonetheless fully supported his family’s membership at Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church in Vienna, serving as scoutmaster for many years.

Even without a bachelor’s degree, he was able to earn a master’s degree from the University of Chicago in 1962 and a doctorate in business management from The George Washington University in 1971. He joined the business school faculty at a fledgling George Mason University, aiding in its phenomenal growth, and was named a professor emeritus upon his retirement. He satisfied his boundless curiosity by volunteering with the Shepherd’s Center in Vienna, and its Adventures in Learning program, for which he was honored by the Vienna Town Council.

A man of incomparable good fortune, Ben gambled $7 in a raffle while stationed in Morocco and took home a new Austin Healey 100 M. It was recently refurbished for considerably more and proudly shown at area car shows. He was a talented singer, handyman, chef and lover of poetry and literature, especially Shakespeare, Wodehouse and Kipling.

Pre-deceased by his parents, his brother Clyde and twin sister Nora, Ben is survived by his wife of 66 years, Mary Lou, and children Benjamin Franklin III (Allison), David Ryder (Ellen), Lisa Mary Ferlazzo (Kevin), Jenifer Carson Scott (Ken), and Jonathan Thayer (Maria); nine grandchildren and three great-granddaughters. He will be profoundly missed by his Vienna neighbors, and by friends and family from Tennessee, Texas, Georgia and across New England.

Funeral services will be held May 25 at 11:00 AM at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Vienna. His memory may be honored with contributions to the AIL/Shepherd’s Center and the general fund of OLGC Catholic Church.