Wilfred Arthur Benoit's Obituary
Wilfred Benoit (Will) passed away peacefully on January 12th at the age of 87 following a brief illness. He was born in San Francisco on January 8, 1925, to Sophie Urbick and Louis Benoit. He lived his childhood in San Francisco, graduating from Corpus Christi School and Lick-Wilmerding High School. He was a member of the Model Airplane Club at the Junior Recreation Museum on Ocean Avenue. In 1942 he earned #1 Junior Aviator, and was referred to as the 'one-man model plane production line', having completed 50 models of various kinds of combat planes for the U.S. Navy's air cadet training program. His proudest creation, though, was a perfect scale replica of the Corpus Christi Church, involving more than 5,000 separate pieces. Will was hired as a draftsman and advanced to the highest level as a Professional Mechanical Engineer for Link-Belt Company, working there until his retirement. His hobbies were varied over the course of his life and included: handball, chess, ping-pong, and stamp collecting. Wilfred married Beatrice Mahaffie on December 6, 1947, and was a devoted husband to her for nearly 60 years. He is survived by his children Dennis Benoit, Lynda Benoit, Bill Benoit and Cathy Levonius, and 11 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren. Will was predeceased by his wife Beatrice, and brothers, Louis Benoit and Charles Benoit. Special thanks to Jose for his wonderful care and companionship for Wilfred in the last years of his life. A celebration of Wilfred's life will be held at Skylawn Memorial Park in San Mateo on Friday, February 3rd.
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