Benjamin Lawrence Honeycutt

Benjamin L. Honeycutt, 83, a retired MU French professor, passed away peacefully in Columbia on Wednesday, February 16, 2022 with his son Mark by his side. He was born on August 30, 1938, in Cliffside, North Carolina to Jesse William and Eloise Sorgee Honeycutt. He graduated from Cliffside High School in 1956 and received his BA degree (Summa Cum Laude) from Wake Forest University in 1960, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Honeycutt completed his Master’s and PhD degrees at The Ohio State University. From 1964 to 1970 he was an instructor and Assistant Professor of French in the Department of Romance Languages at Ohio State. In 1970, Honeycutt and his family moved to Columbia where he began his 30-year career in the MU Romance Languages Department, retiring in 2000.

Honeycutt married Joan Angle in 1965 in Columbus, Ohio, and his two sons, Mark and Kevin, were born of this marriage. In 2001 he married Edna Haynes, a dear friend and classmate from his days at Wake Forest. They chose to continue their retirement years in Columbia. At MU, Honeycutt taught a variety of French courses but especially enjoyed teaching in his special area of Medieval French Language and Literature, a favorite course being History of the French Language. During the last 15 years prior to retirement, he also taught Business French to a variety of students often from the Business and Journalism Schools. Another favorite was the Reading of French for Graduate Students course, where he enjoyed meeting graduate students from other departments who were required to be able to read French as part of their own study programs.

In addition to his teaching and research in Medieval French Literature, where his special interests were the fabliaux (medieval comic tales and medieval drama), Honeycutt especially enjoyed his interaction with students in his role as Director of Undergraduate Studies, a position he held for many years. He was able to help students plan their undergraduate majors and minors in the various Romance Languages. He took particular pleasure in working with students planning study abroad programs and served for many years as departmental liaison to the International Study Center at MU and to MU Libraries. He also enjoyed administrative work in the Romance Languages Department, where he served several terms as both Associate Chair and Summer Interim Chair.

In the community, he was active in the 1970’s and 1980’s in the Daniel Boone Little League program with his sons, Mark and Kevin. At the ball fields is where he enjoyed meeting other parents, many of whom have remained friends to the present day. A great tragedy for Honeycutt was the loss of his 18-year-old son, Kevin, in an accident in 1986. Kevin had been an outstanding Daniel Boone Little League and Hickman High School baseball player. After his death, one of the fields at the Little League complex was named in his honor. More recently, he has taken pride in the accomplishments of his grandchildren, Carson and Brooks.

Honeycutt especially enjoyed traveling and took his family on many trips, most notably to Europe in 1976 with Joan, Mark and Kevin and then later in life a family cruise in 2012 with his wife Edna, Mark, Heather, Carson, Brooks and Heather’s parents, Mike and Kathy Hartmann. He continued his many travels with Edna, in their retirement years and always seemed to be planning and organizing a trip.

His first wife, Joan, their son, Kevin, his second wife, Edna, and stepdaughter, Laura Kelley, predeceased him. Honeycutt is survived by his son, Mark (Heather) and two much loved grandchildren, Cathryn Carson and Kevin Brooks Honeycutt, all of McKinney, Texas. He is also survived by stepdaughter, Lisa Nippert (Don) of Lake Worth, Florida, his precious sister, Martha Stockton (Wiley) of High Point, North Carolina (who were favorite travel companions), and nephew, Will Stockton (Megan) and their family of Denver, Colorado. On Joan’s side of the family in Ohio, he is predeceased by his sister-in-law and her husband, Jean and Tom Traikovich, and is survived by his nephew, Tom Traikovich and niece, Jodie Spangler (Con) and their families.

Honeycutt was a member of Memorial Baptist Church. Remains are to be cremated and a visitation will be held on Saturday, March 5, 2022 at 2:30 pm, with a memorial service to follow at 3:30 pm, both at Memorial Funeral Home, Columbia, MO. Services will be live streamed on the funeral home's Facebook page at Memorial Funeral Home, Crematory, and Memorial Park Cemetery/Columbia. Inurnment will be at a later date in North Carolina.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Kevin Honeycutt Memorial Scholarship Fund at Hickman High School: Kevin Honeycutt Memorial Scholarship Fund Attn: Heather Croy Hickman High School 1104 N Providence Road Columbia, Missouri 65203