Harold Bensinger

Harold “Ben” Burtis Bensinger, 75, of Landisburg, Pennsylvania, passed away of natural causes on August 1, 2025. He was born in Pottsville, Pennsylvania on October 28, 1949, to Burtis and Beryl Bensinger. He grew up in Port Carbon where he helped his father with the family plumbing business, H.R. Bensinger and Sons Plumbing & Heating. Ben graduated from Pottsville Area High School before receiving his nursing degree from the Polyclinic Hospital School of Nursing in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 1970. Ben was a Vietnam Era veteran who served in Korea from 1970 to 1972, caring for injured service members as a med-surg nurse and earning the National Defense Service and Armed Forces Expeditionary Medals. Following his military service, he worked for many years at the Dunham Army Health Clinic at the United States Army War College and at Carlisle Hospital, both in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Ben was previously married to Sarah Bensinger (Green). Together, they built a life filled with love, laughter, and shared memories that continue to live on through their daughters. During his younger years, he enjoyed taking his daughters to work with him to attend soccer camp at the War College and often surprised them after a night shift with apple fritters which he joked were “brains.” Ben was a renaissance man, with deep knowledge and interests in history, photography, astronomy, science fiction, vintage Harley-Davidson motorcycles, vintage firearms, and ham radio. Any phone call from Ben would begin with a question: “Did you know?” followed by an obscure point of trivia. He had been a resident of Landisburg since 1976, during which time he and his family completely renovated an early 1800s log home, one of the earliest structures in town which once housed the local jeweler’s shop. Although he was a long-term resident of Landisburg and served on its Municipal Authority for several years, his heart was at home at his farm. After his retirement, he built a home out of five seafaring shipping containers on his farm and enjoyed spending evenings watching storms roll over the mountain into the Cumberland Valley and writing novels. What began as a post-retirement writing hobby quickly blossomed into several volumes of historical fiction. He enjoyed discussing his novels with his friends and family and debating plot twists and character details. He was the proud author of Anita, Hexcat, and Entombed, and was working on a fourth novel called The Schuylkill Rises. He also cherished the story of his father’s acquisition of a 1893 Marlin Model lever-action rifle, which he recounted in an article, A Hobo’s Lever-Action, published in The American Rifleman in 2022, available at https://www.americanrifleman.org/content/favorite-firearms-a-hobo-s-lever-action/. Ben will always be remembered for his love of learning, unique sense of humor, and varied interests. He loved his daughters and grandchildren, and was notorious for giving them mischievous nicknames such as “Worm,” “Bug,” and “Imp.” Ben is survived by his daughters, Emily Edmunds and husband Jonathan of Camp Hill, Beryl Gee and husband Austin of Harrisburg, and Carol Ann Musselman and husband Steven of Shermans Dale; four grandchildren, Hannah Edmunds of Camp Hill, Jeannette Gee of Harrisburg, and Steven Harold Musselman and Edith Musselman of Shermans Dale; 3 step-grandchildren, Micah Gee, Noah Gee, and Lydia Gee of Harrisburg; and three siblings, Lenore Fritz of Auburn, Craig Bensinger of Mechanicsville, and Krista Torpey, Pottsville. Services with full military honors will be held at 11:30 a.m. on August 18, 2025 at Fort Indiantown Gap National Cemetery. Boyer Family Funeral Home is honored to handle the arrangements for the Bensinger Family.

Harold Bensinger

October 28, 1949 - August 1, 2025