In the early hours of Sunday morning our world lost Fred Bennett, a man who greeted each moment of his life with radiant joy and treated everyone he met with kindness and generosity. As people blessed with such a disposition are exceedingly rare, he is greatly to be missed.
Fred entered this life at Medford in 1942, a child to doting Irish immigrant parents named Mike and May who dubbed him Dermot, a name that Fred would say was well suited for a child of Ireland, but not for an American. He called himself by his middle name instead, but delighted in the rest of his inheritance, which consisted of three brothers and an extended family that would be his emotional bedrock for the rest of his life.
Following graduation from Medford Vocational Technical High School, Fred moved with his parents to West Roxbury, where he would live on Baker Street for over forty years. He held a succession of jobs, working as a railroad clerk, as a salesman at Sears, and as a sales representative for a manufacturer of stationery. He was a devoted and affectionate caretaker to his mother until shortly before her death in 1995. He was also a loyal son to the Church, a fixture at Mass at St. Theresa’s and for some years a youth leader for the Knights of Columbus.
Although he never had children himself, Fred was a natural friend to young people; for his nephews and niece he was the very stuff of the avuncular uncle. A few years after his mother’s death, he began renting rooms out to local college students from a host of different nations, who became like a family to him. When the students returned to their homes, they never forgot the fatherly figure they had met in America, and Fred traveled as far as Mexico and Indonesia to witness the nuptials of the boarders he sometimes thought of as his own children.
A few years ago, following a series of strokes, Fred’s cognitive and physical health began a slow but steady decline, and he removed to the Golden Living Center at West Newton, where he lived until his demise. Even as his body and mind began to betray him, Fred never lost his cheery outlook, beatific smile, and gracious manners. He entered the world a gentle child, and he left it in much the same condition, having bestowed nothing but blessings to everyone he met along the way.
He joins his mother, father, and brother, Jack, in the next life. He leaves behind a brother Paul of Princeton and a brother Tom of Melrose.
His absence impoverishes all who knew him; his memory will be a lasting treasure.
A Memorial Mass was celebrated at St. Theresa of Avila Chapel on December 5, 2013.
At the request of the family, please make donations in lieu of flowers in Fred’s memory to the Jimmy Fund c/o the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute P.O. Box 849168 Boston, MA 02284-9168.
Interment will be private.