Vernon Benjamin, who focused on Hudson Valley”™s past and present across multiple careers as a government official, educator and writer, passed away on Monday at the age of 76 following a bout with cancer.
Born Dec. 23, 1945 in Saugerties, he was a graduate of Saugerties High School and received his bachelor’s degree from Siena College and his master’s degree from C.W. Post College. Benjamin was a legislative aide to Assemblyman Maurice Hinchey from 1982 to 1992 and was a crucial behind-the-scenes figure in the passage of the Hudson River Estuary Management Act of 1987 and the creation of the Hudson River Greenway.
Benjamin”™s public service was also public-facing ”“ he served as an Ulster County legislator from 1984 to 1989 and was Saugerties town supervisor from 1990 to 1991.
Benjamin moved from politics to education, lecturing on Hudson Valley history at Bard College and Marist College, and also became a writer and editor with the New Saugerties Times. His first book, the 2014 release “The History of the Hudson River Valley: From Wilderness to the Civil War,” was praised by the New York Times as being “a model for how to enliven geography, anthropology, and biography, and weave them into a microcosmic account of America.” A companion book, “The History of the Hudson River Valley: From the Civil War to Modern Times,” was published in 2016.
Photo courtesy of the Omega Institute
