Lucy Benson has not been one to focus on a single field. Since settling into her Amherst home fifty-four years ago with her husband and former Amherst Physics Professor Bruce Benson '43, she has assumed a remarkable number and variety of leadership roles at the local, state and national levels. She has been President of the National League of Women Voters, Secretary of Human Services for Massachusetts and U.S. Undersecretary of State for Security Assistance, Science and Technology. Benson has met with the King of Saudi Arabia in his royal palace, the Shah of Iran and the anthropologist Dian Foccey atop Mt. Rwanda. And she has done all this while maintaining close, heartfelt ties to the Amherst community.
League President
Born in New York City, Benson attended Smith and graduated in 1949. She didn't spend much time in Amherst until the spring semester of her senior year, when she met her eventual husband Bruce, then a professor of Physics at the College. What started out as arranged date at the local movie theater grew into a marriage that lasted forty-three years.
Benson soon attended graduate school and received her M.A. in history from Smith College. She then started her lifelong involvement in the League of Women Voters (LWV). At the time, the major local issue was the reformation of the Amherst town government. Specifically, "the town government was getting bigger and more complicated, and it was more than three selectmen could manage," Benson recalled.
After careful study, the League supported a switch from the three selectmen format to a five person, elected select board with an appointed town manager. The changes recommended by the League are still in effect today.
Benson's focus gradually expanded, leading to her become state president of the LWV, and then to take the helm of the 170,000 member volunteer organization as president from 1968 to 1974. Commuting to Washington D.C. Tuesday morning and returning Thursday afternoon, Benson focused on a number of issues, chief among them welfare, international trade, civil rights and election laws.
As president of the LWV, she got to know a number of elected officials. Most significantly, she met Jimmy Carter-then governor of Georgia-at a league convention. Several years later, Carter appointed her Undersecretary of State for Security Assistance, Science and Technology.
Dukakis Comes Calling
After six years at the helm of the LWV, Benson returned her focus to Massachusetts, and in 1975 was appointed the state's Secretary of Human Services by Governor Michael Dukakis. In this position Benson oversaw, among other things, the state's welfare program, mental hospitals, public health hospitals, Department of Corrections and veterans' affairs.
Benson recalled that a major issue during her two years in the state government was mental health reform. "At the time, there was a huge revolution going on in mental care where the idea of the mental health professionals was to close the great big institutions and have mental health services at home," Benson said. "The problem was that they closed the institutions but they never really built up the community mental health services and it was really a big waste."
"It was a great idea to break down those enormous hospitals which had enormous numbers of people," Benson continued. "People would have been much better off out of those buildings, but not just out on the loose, which is what happened in many cases."
Benson was confronted with a problem that would recur during her time in government. "Everyone has good ideas in government, it goes on all the time. Great ideas and then nobody wants to pay for it. It's very stressing and so irrational, but you know you get used to it."
From Boston to D.C.
After two years in-state, Benson returned to the national scene in a big way. President Carter appointed Benson Undersecretary of State for Security Assistance, Science and Technology, making her, at the time, the highest ranking woman ever in the State Department.
Beneath the Secretary of State and Deputy Secretary of State, the State Department had three undersecretaries. In addition to Benson, there was an Undersecretary of Economic Affairs and an Undersecretary of Political Affairs. A large component of Benson's job was to oversee the export of U.S. arms to allies.
During her tenure as Undersecretary, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act of 1978 was passed. Benson was involved in its approval and worked closely with Congress to assure its passage. "President Carter wanted to reduce the amount of arms that we exported to other countries, and we managed to do that too by a huge amount. It didn't last very long, because then Carter got defeated and Reagan had no controls over it … But it showed you could do it."
The main focus of her arms export oversight was the Middle East, since the region was still in its early stages of modern military development. It was in this capacity that Benson met with the Shah of Iran. "The Shah was an enormous purchaser of U.S. arms, and one of the principal things that the President wanted to do was reduce that amount of money," Benson said. "I had to go over to explain to him why we could not allow him to purchase from us what we called a deep-water navy. We didn't want him to do that because it would have upset the balance in the area."
Benson also recalled a meeting with the King of Saudi Arabia. The meeting was held at midnight, possibly-Benson postulated-so no one would see a woman entering the King's palace. In a rectangular room with chairs all around it, Benson sat face to face with the King.
"I had to go over and see what was going on in Saudi Arabia with our equipment which they had already bought … and also to talk to the King to try to persuade him that we would do everything we could to get Congress to OK the export of F-16 fighter planes." Along the way, the Saudi King provided Benson with a lecture on foreign policy.
In addition to arms exports, Benson did some work on international environmental issues. "The environment is of course an international matter, not a national matter, so in order to get anything done you need to work with other countries," Benson said. "We devised a number of treaties of one kind or another to work with Mexico or to work with other countries on particular projects."
Of all her experiences in the Carter Administration, Benson most vividly recalled a climb up Mt. Rwanda to meet with American anthropologist Dian Fossey. Fossey was studying mountain gorillas on Mt. Rwanda and had gotten into a dispute with the Rwandan government. Fossey wanted the government to prevent the Rwandan people from moving up the mountain and encroaching on the gorilla's habitat. The United States sent Benson to moderate. "[Fossey] had a big argument with the government of Rwanda which got very upset," Benson recalled, "And Secretary of State Vance sent me over there to see if I couldn't calm the waters."
Eventually, an agreement was reached. Before that, however, Benson had to make the seven hour climb up Mt. Rwanda to meet with Fossey. "I hadn't climbed a mountain since I was in camp," Benson jokingly remembered. "I was so afraid I was going to disgrace myself and the government of the U.S., but I made it."
Opportunities Abound
By the time Benson left the State Department, women had become far more accepted in the work force. Many corporate boards wanted to add a female presence, and given her impressive past, a number of opportunities presented themselves. To this day, Benson remains on several Dreyfus Fund Boards and is the Director of the Citizens Network for Foreign Affairs, a nonprofit. She has also served on the board of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and was the chairman of Grumman Corporation's audit committee three different times. From 1985-2000 she was the Vice Chairman of Lafayette College. However, she remains unfazed by her record as a trailblazer.
"I just happened along at the right time when it became important to companies and organizations to have women on their boards. They had never had women before. I was the first woman on so many boards. First this, first that. You just don't pay any attention to it. You just do it."
Amherst Supporter
Though Benson's numerous positions have led her to Washington, Saudi Arabia and Iran, she has remained a fixture in the Amherst College and town community. "Amherst College, of course, has been a part of my life for 57 years. All the time I was off doing this, that, and the other thing, I was still involved in college affairs, with my husband's college affairs."
Benson's husband Bruce was a physics professor at the College from 1947 until his death in 1990. "Her long marriage with Professor Benson was wondrous," said Professor Emeritus Gordon. "They were two very intelligent and demanding individuals who were devoted to one another and who took great pride in the other's achievements. Mrs. Benson took great interest in Amherst College and especially in the Physics Department when Professor Benson was alive. Despite her busy life, she has maintained that interest to this day."
In 1974, then-Amherst College President William Ward presented her with an honorary degree. There is now a Bruce B. Benson '43 and Lucy Wilson Benson professorship, of which Professor Kannan Jagannathan is the first holder.
In town, Benson is the Chairman of the Board of Amherst Cinema Arts Center, a nonprofit three-screen theater in the town center. Her major project is to fundraise for the Cinema so that it can buy its building by the end of the year.
"It was a great day when Lucy joined our Board," remarked Carol Johnson, Executive Director of the Cinema. "She has been instrumental in fundraising for our cinema's home. She is a dynamo, a real no-nonsense person and a real kick to work with. She had the vision to see early on that the Amherst Cinema would become a focal point for economic and cultural renewal in Amherst and she really helped make it happen."
A Leader without Limits
Lucy Benson has lived in the same Amherst home for the past 54 years. Though this has led to some long commutes, it has not prevented her from living a life filled with ever changing challenges and opportunities. Be it through the League of Woman Voters, the federal and state government, corporate America or the town of Amherst, Benson has had leadership roles in an incredibly diverse spectrum of arenas.
"I have been involved in so many different things over the years, not like a professor or lawyer involved on one thing," Benson said. "I did what I wanted to, and what I was asked to do. Things just came my way, and when I got asked to do something-unless it was something I really didn't want to do-I did it."