Eric Ragnar Benson (born July 29, 1899 in Virestad,

Älmhult Älmhult () is a locality and the seat of Älmhult Municipality in Kronoberg County, Sweden with 8,955 inhabitants in 2010. It was in Älmhult that the first IKEA (the Swedish furniture company) store was built. IKEA continues to have a large c ...

, Sweden, died March 10, 1979, in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

) was a

Swedish-American Swedish Americans ( sv, svenskamerikaner) are Americans of Swedish ancestry. They include the 1.2 million Swedish immigrants during 1865–1915, who formed tight-knit communities, as well as their descendants and more recent immigrants. Today, ...

building contractor in Chicago whose firm was one of the ten largest in the United States and employed thousands. Benson was the son of Karl Edvard Bengtsson and Matilda Bengtsdotter, and one of 10 children. He arrived without means in the United States at age 11, became a stonemason and bricklayer, created Ragnar Benson Inc. in 1922 and by 1969 was given the

Horatio Alger Award The Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans is a nonprofit organization based in Alexandria, Virginia, that was founded in 1947 to honor the achievements of outstanding Americans who have succeeded in spite of adversity and to emphas ...

. His firm worked for many major U. S. companies, buil
Chrysler assembly plant, Belvidere, 1964-65
and the famous towers at

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. Ragnar Benson Inc. had built Chicago structures including the CNA Building and Harbor Point Towers and had performed maintenance work on city buildings including

Tribune Tower The Tribune Tower is a , 36-floor neo-Gothic skyscraper located at 435 North Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Built between 1923 and 1925, the international design competition for the tower became a historic event in 20th-cen ...

and the

Wrigley Building The Wrigley Building is a skyscraper located at 400–410 North Michigan Avenue on Chicago's Near North Side. It is located on the Magnificent Mile directly across Michigan Avenue from the Tribune Tower. Its two towers in an elaborate style wer ...

. Benson was widely known for philanthropic generosity which at times was considered eccentric. The

King of Sweden The monarchy of Sweden is the monarchical head of state of Sweden,See the Instrument of Government, Chapter 1, Article 5. which is a constitutional and hereditary monarchy with a parliamentary system.Parliamentary system: see the Instrument o ...

once stopped his car to chat (" 'If it isn't Benson!' the king said to me. He remembered me!"). Swedes in sports inspired Benson to back

Ingemar Johansson Jens Ingemar "Ingo" Johansson (; 22 September 1932 – 30 January 2009) was a Swedish professional boxer who competed from 1952 to 1963. He held the world heavyweight title from 1959 to 1960, and was the fifth heavyweight champion born outside ...

for a heavyweight championship fight in Chicago in 1959. Johansson got a guarantee from a 12-man syndicate headed by Ragnar Benson. Benson, a big, mild man with twisted, trembling fingers, said he was offering the guarantee "because Chicago has been good to me. I came here without a cent. It doesn't help my business one single cent, not one single cent." In April 1957, a specially chartered SAS DC 6 landed at Bulltofta airport in Malmö in southern Sweden. On board were 70 passengers who had boarded the plane in Chicago the previous day. They were all Swedish Americans, relatives and friends of Ragnar Benson, embarking on a twelve-day family reunion tour of Ragnar Benson's ancestral area in and around Älmhult in southern

Småland Småland () is a historical province () in southern Sweden. Småland borders Blekinge, Scania, Halland, Västergötland, Östergötland and the island Öland in the Baltic Sea. The name Småland literally means ''Small Lands''. The Latinized fo ...

. The tour generated a great deal of attention in Sweden, and they were followed by journalists and interested onlookers as they traveled from one reunion to another in Småland. Benson brought a special necklace from Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago to Mayor Thomas Munck af Rosenschöld, the journey went in rented buses to Älmhult. In 1963, Benson was back in Sweden this time with 35 relatives and old-time employees whom he considered “all a part of my family.” The 63-year-old construction contractor gave another purpose of the trip. “I'm bringing along some loving cups which I will give out as prizes to the winners of the south Sweden swimming meet on Aug. 14,” he said. “It seems they named it after me.” Chicago Garfieldian Newspaper Archives July 24, 1963 https://newspaperarchive.com/chicago-garfieldian-jul-24-1963-p-1/ Benson married Elsa K. Olson and had one son, Raymond Lewis Benson, who sold most of the family business after his father's death in 1979. The company still (2022) has the name Ragnar Benson Construction but is a subsidiary of a larger one.

References

*
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON: RAY BENSON LIGHTENS HIS WALLET GIVING TO
by Mike Nichols,

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

1989-11-05 {{DEFAULTSORT:Benson, Ragnar contractor American people of Swedish descent Businesspeople from Chicago American bricklayers American stonemasons American builders Philanthropists from Illinois 1899 births 1979 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American philanthropists