Resident of Walnut Creek, California for over fifty years. Beloved Husband, Father and Grandfather. Predeceased by first wife Mary Selby Wilson of 50 years; second wife Alice Peterson Wilson of 25 years, and daughter Cheryl Wilson Dickson. Survived by daughter Marilyn Wilson Flaner of Walnut Creek, four grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, and lots of extended family. Raised in the Pagosa Springs area of Colorado and the Chama area of New Mexico:

(Contributor notes: Determined for her boys to receive some education, their mother, Lucy, took Ben and his brothers Joe, Fred, and Elmer into the nearest town, Chama, to go to school. The distance was enough that the boys had to be boarded in town, in a house right by the school for at least three months at a time, to have some consistency and retention in their education. It was too far to ride into town everyday from the ranch to school, and there were only a few months out of the year that they could be spared from the ranch's needs. When rodeo events came around, it wasn't uncommon to find Ben and his brothers competing in the various contests in the Chama Valley area. During his 90th birthday celebration at his home in October of 2001, his kindness and love and wisdom given all the family, especially to the children over the years was greatly noted:

His grandson, Marty Dickson, shared how Ben had taught him the value of hard work and pride in workmanship even before Marty was 10 years old, as he crawled and hammered along the rooftop, helping his grandfather re-roof the house. Marty also shared his warm memories of camping and fishing trips to Colorado as a child alongside his grandparents. Ben often spoke of another middle name "Emmerling" his parents gave him, and his grandsons enjoyed teasing him with this interesting name.

Neice, Marge Bertram, said that Ben and Mary raised more than their own two dear girls, they often had nieces & nephews left in their care for varying lengths of time. Each child felt as much, if not more, love in Ben & Mary's arms than with their own parents.

Neice, Venus Reinhardt, remembers fun with Ben & Fred as teenagers. She & Ben roped a porcupine while horseback riding, put it on a horse's back, and took it back to the ranch, where Ben took Venus's photo with the prickly thing! Another time, Fred wanted to make choke cherry wine, but Ben & Venus drank all of it before he got it.)

Ben moved his wife, Mary, and first daughter to Oakland, California, in 1942 where he worked in the shipyards. Soon, they were blessed with their second daughter. After the war, Ben resumed his career as an automobile mechanic retiring in 1976. He was featured in racing magazines for his work on race cars in the Bay Area track "pits". Ben enjoyed family, fishing, country-western music and took great pride in his garden. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to National Down Syndrome Society, 666 Broadway, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10012, in the memory of Ben O. Wilson. Sources: HS Tory personal knowledge, and also obituary from Contra Costa Times, published 8/14/2007.