Bradley Benson
Jan. 15, 1959-Sept. 3, 2018
Bradley Thomas Ben-
son, 59 years old, left this
world on Monday, Sep-
tember 3, 2018, after a
long battle with cancer.
He was surrounded by his
wife and children who
were able to provide him
comfort in his last mo-
ments. He was welcomed
to heaven with a brilliant
show of thunder and
lightning.
Funeral services will be
held on Friday, Sep-
tember 7, at 10:30 AM at
Trinity Lutheran Church,
502 N 4th St., Bismarck.
Visitation for family,
friends, and others whose
lives Brad touched are in-
vited to Parkway Funeral
Service, 2330 Tyler Park-
way, Bismarck, from 5-7
p.m. on Thursday, Sep-
tember 6. Burial will be
held at the North Dakota
Veterans Cemetery in
Mandan at 1:00 PM.
Brad was born in Bot-
tineau, North Dakota on
January 15, 1959, to
Evelyn Fay (Green) and
Asmundur Swain Benson
and was the fifth of six
children. He graduated
from Bottineau High
School and went on to
proudly serve in the
armed forces as a missile
assemblyman in the Navy
from 1981 to 1987. He
was stationed in Hawaii
where he was able to ex-
perience the splendor of
the ocean as an avid diver
and fisherman stating,
“You’ve never seen the
stars until you’ve seen
them from a boat in the
middle of the sea at
night.” It was also in
Hawaii where he became
a father to his beloved
daughter, Ashly, whom he
was endlessly proud of.
After his time in Hawaii,
he completed an engineer-ing degree at the Universi-ty of North Dakota and
worked as a geological en-
gineer for the State of
North Dakota at the State
Water Commission and
then later for the federal
government at the Nation-al Resources Conservation
Service. In addition to his
career, his service extend-ed to the AA community
where he helped unk-
nown numbers of strug-
gling folks come to find
peace and sobriety.
On September 3, 2010,
Brad married his loving
and devoted wife, Leann
Tschider (Schuler), who
courageously fought
alongside him during his
five-year struggle with
cancer. Though their time
together was ended much
too soon, they were able
to experience the joys of
travel, build a beautiful
home, and most impor-
tantly, become
grandparents to four
wonderful grandchildren.
Becoming a grandparent
or “papa” as he was
called, was one of the
greatest delights of his
life, lifting his spirits and
hopes during the last
years of his life. Brad had
an infamous sweet tooth
that must have fed the
sweetness of his soul. He
was able to see the beauty
in everything, making dai-
ly comments on the beau-
ty of the world, his home
and of course, his wife.
He was known to his fam-
ily as a man of sharp wit
who wasn’t afraid to laugh
at his own jokes, an ad-
venturous cook going as
far as his infamous
“tur-duck-in”, a man of
style and flare that was
uniquely his own, and a
man who truly loved be-
ing part of a family as
husband, father, papa, un-
cle, brother and son. In
the words of his
grandchildren, “he was a
superhero, he was beauti-
ful, he was kind to every-
one and everyone loves
him.”
Left to honor Brad and
remember his love are:
his mother, Evelyn Fay
Benson; wife, Leann Ben-
son; daughter, Ashly Ben-
son; stepchildren, Lindsy
(Jeremy) Nordeen, Sarah
Tschider, Matthew
(Nicole) Tschider;
grandchildren Scarlett
and Knox Renner (Sarah),
Foster Nordeen (Lindsy),
Brynn Tschider
(Matthew); sisters Sheila
(Donovan) Bertsch,
Melanie (Conrad) Olson;
brothers Swain (Kathy),
Allan and Chris Benson;
and many nieces and
nephews.
Brad was preceded in
death by: his father,
Asmundur Swain Benson
and his beloved niece,
Sarah Benson.
Memorials are preferred
in Brad’s honor to the
Leukemia and Lymphoma
society
(https://pages.lightthenight.org/mn/
TwinCiti18/TeamBradBenson)
or the donor’s choice.
Go to
www.parkwayfuneral.com
to share memories of Brad
and sign the online guest-
book.