LAKEVILLE — Olivier Cecil Benjamin, age 74 of Lakeville, passed away, peacefully, in the early morning hours of July 18 at Noble Horizons. His loving partner of many years, Patricia Walsh, was there beside him throughout the night.
He was born in Manhattan of French parents but moved, with his family, shortly thereafter, to Geneva, Switzerland, where his father worked for the United Nations. At age 15, he returned to the United States, to attend The Stockbridge School in Massachusetts from which he graduated in 1967.
All who knew Olivier knew him to be a hugely charismatic, extremely talented and extraordinarily creative person. All those traits were exhibited at Advertising Display Company in New Jersey and The Thompson Leeds Company in Manhattan where he was employed as a designer and model-maker. Those of us privileged to be his friends might even have received a hand-carved trinket hewn from a discarded piece of wood — right up until the day he was first hospitalized with prostate cancer.
He is survived by his former wife, Robin; his beloved stepdaughter, Shannon, and two step-grandchildren; and by his youngest brother, Eric, his wife, Donatella, and their two children who still reside in Switzerland. Olivier was predeceased by his parents Lillian and Claude Benjamin and his younger brother Michel.
Olivier’s family and friends are extremely grateful for the very kind and highly professional care he received from so many there in the Wagner Building at Noble Horizons.
Friends and family of Olivier’s will gather to celebrate his life on Sept. 21. Memorial Donations should be sent to The Salisbury Volunteer Ambulance Service.
