Benjamin Smith Mayger

Benjamin S. Mayger – On Tuesday, May 31, 2011 we lost our Ben, who at the age of 84 left quietly and in comfort to begin his final journey.

Benjamin S. Mayger was born in Shanghai, China April 15, 1927 the son of William Mayger, whose roots were Marysville, and Flora Smith Mayger. William Mayger was pursuing a foreign career with an international petroleum company. As a young boy and keeping with family moves, Ben lived in many cities of China and Manchuria—Shanghai, Tientsin, Hankow, Mukden. His first language was Chinese, as it was with most foreign children there. His early education was in a German school, and therefore, German was his second language. English was his third. Languages in the family were often diverse. Ben’s Mother, an academic Phi Beta Kappa from Boston University, learned to speak Russian because of the large Russian communities in North China and Manchuria. Dinner conversations depended largely on the guests. Sometimes it was English, other times it was German or French. This sounds dysfunctional, but it worked.

Home leave vacations to the United States were normally every three years. One of the exceptions to this was in 1935, when two feuding Chinese warlords made it necessary to take a mule boat down to the Yangtse River to Shanghai. From there Ben, his mother, and siblings sailed on to the United States, spending several months en route in Europe. Being in the U.S. for a short period, Ben attended the Hawthorne School in Helena, returning to Shanghai, however, soon thereafter. Lacking movies and western radio/music, family entertainment in China basically evolved around horses. Ben’s Father as a native Montanan was recognized as an expert and accomplished horseman and an experienced polo player. Sunday afternoons were often spent on long rides in the outskirts of Shanghai on their Mongolian ponies. During Ben’s life, however, Lincoln, Montana was always the end vacation destination regardless of where he was at the time. Growing up in high density, urban settings, Lincoln vacations provided the freedom and activities a growing boy could wish for.

In 1937 resulting from hostilities between the Chinese and Japanese, a 2-hour ceasefire was negotiated, enabling all foreigners to leave Shanghai. As conflict lessened, however, Ben and family returned to Shanghai in 1938, resuming residence. By 1940 with skirmishes and occasional bombing becoming more common, it was arranged that Ben, his mother, and his siblings would take what turned out to be the last boat out, planning to meet his father in the United States. Although the trip was uneventful, Ben’s father in moving the office to Manila was detained by the Declaration of War and interned in Santo Tomas Japanese prison camp, Philippines, for 2 ½ years.

College for Ben was an extended affair. Graduating from a New England prep school at 18, he joined the army and was sent to Japanese Language School at the University of Michigan, from which because of his military service he was graduated nine years later. Ben received his commission as 2nd lieutenant at the age of 19 and spent the following four post-WW II years as an intelligence officer and combat Japanese interpreter in Japan. He was recalled a few years later to active service, reporting to Washington, D.C. where he remained for a short period prior to flying to Tokyo and then on into the Korean conflict. For the next two years he was an intelligence officer and Chinese interpreter.

Upon being released from active service, Ben joined an international oil company and was posted to Madras, South India. One of the great delights of traveling to and from vacations occurred aboard ship, where Ben met his future wife, Nancy True McGowan, who was herself returning from vacation in the United States to Trieste, Italy, where she was posted by the U.S. Foreign Service. Long-range proposals were not simple with Nancy in Trieste and Ben then in New Delhi, India; but theirs was, and they were married on June 20, 1956 in Beirut, Lebanon, then known as the Paris of the Middle East.

Over the next 26 years with successive foreign assignments and greater degrees of responsibility, Ben along with his growing family of three children resided in Madras/New Delhi/Calcutta/Bangalore, India; Singapore; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Hannover, Germany; Brussels, Belgium; and Basel/Zuerich, Switzerland, where as CEO of a Swiss petroleum affiliate the family lived for 10 years. While in India, Ben learned sufficient Urdu (Hindi) to be able to conduct local business. Languages were never a problem, since Nancy was fluent in Italian, and the entire family was comfortable in high German, Swiss German, French, and English as well.

Ben’s final transfer to corporate headquarters in New York as General Manager for Finance and Credit in the company’s European division for its 14 European subsidiaries continued to require foreign travel. This assignment lasted 11 years after which Ben retired on January 1, 1986. Since Montana was always a given, Ben and Nancy moved to Helena and purchased an 1890’s Victorian house. Lincoln, however, continued to be a principle ingredient to this retirement.

Along with devoting considerable restoration effort in the Helena house, the property cleanup in Lincoln was ever present. Ben served on the Board of the Humane Society as well as devoting almost six years as a volunteer in the U.S. Forest Service, restoring some of their back-country log cabins. For this latter effort he was presented in Washington, D.C. with an award by the Secretary of the Interior. Ben also served on the Board of the Lincoln Historical Society for 15 years, during which time a book on the Lincoln history was published and a local historical museum established. Each member of Ben’s family now 5th generation Montanans continues to believe that Montana and especially Lincoln is “The Last Best Place.”

Ben is survived by his wife of 55 years; his three children, Douglas, Jeffery, and Gretchen; and seven grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held 11:00 a.m. Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at St. Peter’s Episcopal Cathedral on Park Avenue. A reception will be held in the lower level of the church immediately following the memorial service. Burial with military honors will be held at 1:20 p.m. at Forestvale Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, Memorials in Ben’s name are suggested to St. Peter’s Episcopal Cathedral 511 N. Park Helena, MT 59601 or to the Upper Blackfoot Valley Historical Society P.O. Box 922 Lincoln, MT 59639. Condolences may be sent to the family by visiting: www.aswfuneralhome.com.

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