08/24/2026
Ben Sherman died on the evening of Tuesday, July 28, 2026 at Robert Packer hospital of cardiac arrest. He was 85.
In the past year or so, Ben started responding to situations with the phrase, “It is what it is.” The words were an acknowledgement of his diminished capacity, that previously important tasks on the list were going to go undone. And more broadly that his world had shrunk with the death of his wife Janet and the effects of a spinal injury in 2022 and more recent illnesses. But Ben was still very much engaged in life, the light in his days coming from his immediate family, art and learning. A sculptor at his core for his entire adult life, Ben took great joy in form and texture.
The baby boy, named Benjamin by his immigrant parents, was born in Brooklyn on October 21st, 1945. Ben’s childhood in Brooklyn was a nostalgic memory for him: the rich, multi course meals his mother served every night, the kosher butcher in the neighborhood, getting a pickle for .05 cents, the milk deliveryman, attending the local synagogue during his observant stage, until he wasn’t any more. He was also proud that he attended Brooklyn Tech High School, where his teachers had PhDs.
Ben had the temperament of an engineer crossed with a rabbi, projecting authority, logic and reason, but he made some major illogical choices that altered the course of his life. The first was dropping out of Brooklyn College where he was studying drafting, and enrolling in the Art Student’s League in NYC, where he pursued sculpture and met his wife Janet. Those were the times when you could pay the rent on a 2000 square foot loft on the Bowery by working part time as a plumber. It was also during this time that Ben quit his job working for a company that made bomb sites and gave up his occupational deferment to the draft during the Vietnam war, asserting he was a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War only, a novel case that was taken up by the ACLU.
Unlike his two brothers who did the reasonable thing and moved from Brooklyn to Long Island, Ben and his wife Janet bought a Jeep (soon after he got his license), bought an old farmhouse and packed-up their two year old son, Ezra, and moved 240 miles upstate (to Spencer).
Ben was not wedded to the culture in which he grew up or confining himself to a likeminded circle. After moving to Spencer in 1970, he became a fixture of the community, absorbing country life and contributing to the community, most notably by studying Advanced First Aid, becoming an EMT and founding (along with several other community members) the Spencer Emergency Squad. He had a lifelong curiosity of religion and was interested to know the people for whom religion was important. He took a bible study class and was friendly with the local Christian religious leaders, stepping outside of the safety of his bubble.
Ben worked for decades as an engineer for NCR and Savin copiers bringing home a regular paycheck, but he did not like it. He jumped at the chance to work as a sculptor full time, when the opportunity presented itself, and worked in local high schools and in rural Pennsylvania, as a visiting artist, helping teenagers express their creativity.
Ben started out working with wood, but, after moving to Spencer, his medium was mostly steel and concrete. He left a large (and heavy) body of work which also included a series of monumental and intricate chandeliers, a wood stove, and intertwined human forms carved in soapstone.
While Ben would sum up who he was as “a sculptor” his greatest joy in the last part of his life was spending time with his grandchildren, Leila and Zuri, babysitting them, with Janet, twice a week from the time they were toddlers until they were young teenagers. He and Janet loved to attend jazz performances and art openings, often taking their grandchildren with them.
While Ben’s son did not become an artist, the decision to raise him in a rural community had a profound effect on his life, along with exposure to woodworking and steel fabrication tools, and to his belief that design and creation is one of the most satisfying pursuits in life.
Ben is survived by his son Ezra, daughter-in-law Autumn Stoscheck, and grandchildren Leila and Zuri, brilliant artists in their own right. He is also survived by many community members in Spencer who remember him as a calm and decent person, members of State of the Art Gallery where he was a member for many years, patrons of the old Greenstar where he and Janet could often be seen having a treat, his friends in the art and jazz communities, his wife’s twin sister Marta Byer White whose patronage allowed for Ben’s full time dedication to art and to his friend Star who enabled his return home after a spinal injury.
A memorial celebration of Ben’s life will take place on September 19th beginning at 3pm at 310 Beckhorn Hollow Road, Van Etten, NY 14889 Please RSVP
