Milosh Benesh

I wanted to honor his life by showing a photo of him doing the thing which he absolutely loved the most - hiking, backpacking, and mountain climbing in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. He lived a long and full life, and was able to live independently to the very end. He beat many risky odds, escaped with his family from Communist Czechoslovakia is his mid-30s, was a brilliant space exploration scientist for NASA (including being a key member of the team which launched the first successful satellite orbit around Mars), loved mountaineering and skiing, and was very disciplined, tenacious, organized and analytical (IBM could have patterned their first PC based on his brain).

He provided a very comfortable middle class lifestyle for my mother, myself, and my sister Regina. He taught me how to ski, took me on mountaineering adventures, helped me through college, taught me about world affairs and European history, gave me lots of practical advice, and encouraged me to have

a healthy skeptical worldview (which I counterbalance with my more natural optimistic nature). For about the last five years he lived close to me here in Loveland, and I had the privilege to help care for him and spend lots of time together. He will be dearly missed, but we all knew for quite some time that this was the way he was going to go. This foreknowledge has helped soften the blow, along with the special memories of my most recent time with him.

His body will be cremated here in Loveland, and then his ashes will be interned at Lakewood Memorial Park in Hughson, California next to my mother's ashes (she passed away about 13 years ago). Consistent with his minimalistic nature, he refused to have a funeral ceremony, so this post is the closest thing to an obituary that I will write for him. Thank you for taking the time to read this post, which is very special for myself, my sister Regina and her family, and my children/family: Desiree Hull, Casey Hull, Austin Benesh, Nate Benesh, and Kathryn Benesh.