By Laura Mazur
Community Post
Some legends live on by word of mouth. Others live on in written words. And still some, live on in pictures. Richard Bensman was a local legend who will live on in all of these.

Known for his sense of humor and shutterbug tendencies, Bensman told others' stories through his eyes and words as former editor and photographer for The Community Post. But the pages of his life turned last Wednesday as he passed away at the age of 86.
“Dad was a public figure and we were proud of him,” said Bensman's oldest daughter, Connie Sanders, who lives in Fort Loramie.
Loved by both family and community members, he was known for filling pages of The Community Post with a variety of pictures—more than a quarter of a million of them, as cited by The Evening Leader when Bensman retired from the weekly paper in 1987 after 16 years of scouring the local territory with his faithful camera, “Betsy.”
“He took a lot of pictures. People liked to see pictures in the paper more than stories,” explained Bensman's youngest, Rich Bensman, who lives in Cincinnati.
Although he spent many 16 hours days with the paper taking pictures, developing film, printing photos, selling ads and taking the paper to the press and distributing it, he still made time for family.
Married to Marianna Gerwels in 1945, the couple had 10 children, each one two years apart from the previous. And each child had a different “bond” with their father, says Sanders.
Daughter Carol Fleckenstein, of Fort Loramie, helped her dad out with his work. Post Printing formerly owned The Community Post before being taken over by Horizon Publications of Ohio. Fleckenstein worked as a secretary at Post Printing while her dad was editor and photographer. She explained that he would come into the office with his camera and game stats, and she was the one to write many of his sports stories, which accompanied his photo collages.
Always pressed for time but never saying no, Bensman would schedule quick photo shoots with people by saying, “Be at the Minsdter gazebo at 2,” according to Minster resident Barb Osterloh, who has volunteered with 4-H for more than 30 years.
“He was such a good-hearted, busy soul,” she said. “He understood people and people trusted him.”
Many people, especially his family, have fond memories of spending time with him. A vacation for such a large family sometimes included taking a picnic lunch to one of the local lakes for the day and playing in the water with their father. Later, the family would go to a drive-in movie with a grocery bag of popcorn and jugs of Kool-Aid. All of the kids would usually fall asleep during the film and he would carry them into the house one at a time from the car.
The couple's roles were described as those from the 1940s and '50s. Bensman supported the family and his wife cared for the family.
Besides his pictures, Bensman was also known for his sense of humor and habit of never wearing a coat, even in freezing temperatures. But few knew why he didn't just cover up.
Family stories say that he had several reasons why he didn't wear a coat. One of these was his time served in the South Pacific, where temperatures went from one extreme to another. So, he learned to adjust by the skin of his arms. Another story his children recall was when he went rabbit hunting and fell into a creek. Soaked to the bone, he continued on with the great day of hunting. By the time he returned home, his clothes were frozen on him and he decided that he had a different sense of the cold than others might.
Rich Stein, a Minster resident who knew Bensman, recalls during the Blizzard of 1978 when he was bundled up to the point where he couldn't move. Stein spotted Bensman around town and saw he was only sporting a lightweight, long-sleeved shirt.
“He would be out shoveling snow wearing boots, a pair of gloves and a short-sleeved shirt,” said Sanders. “That's the way he was comfortable.”
An honest and competitive spirit, Rich Bensman recalls his dad tearing up many decks of cards throughout the years because people were not playing right. He also played an unofficial referee in many of his children's sports games, calling refs “Homer” from the stands and telling them how to call the game.
Margie Wuebker, a local news reporter who worked at competing papers while Bensman was in his news roles, said she remembers a quote of his that she enjoyed, “A picture is worth a thousand words, and I'm not much of a writer.”
“He wasn't the writing type. He filled the pages with photographs,” said Wuebker.
Hard working was a way many people saw Bensman, including Bob Lammers, a former editor of The Community Post, who found the photographer developing pictures in a dark room even on a Sunday morning.
“I didn't work with Dick. He came two editors after me, but I knew him for years and years and years,” said Bob Lammers,.
Lammers' memories of the man go back to the 1950s, when Bensman owned and operated Brucken's, in Fort Loramie. A friend complained that there was not enough horseradish on his hamburger, so Bensman took it back and “loaded it up” to the point where the friend was taken aback by the strength in flavor.
“He had a great sense of humor, he never took himself too seriously and was a very hard worker,” said Lammers.
Bensman started at The Community Post in 1971 after given the job when he decided to sell Brucken's. Even with no newspaper or photography experience to start, he started a legacy of his own, which will continue for years to come.