Township engineer remembered as a ‘one-in-a-million type of person’
When Mike Benton was diagnosed with a rare form of liver cancer and bile duct cancer last June, it would have been understood if he had stopped working as South Fayette Township’s engineer.
Though, not to the surprise of his coworkers, Benton kept coming to work every day.
“It takes a very unique, one-in-a-million type of person to be diagnosed with a terminal disease and a not-very-good outlook at all and still keep coming back to work and contributing meaningfully,” said Ryan Eggleston, township manager. “I think you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone anywhere that had that approach.”
Benton, 63, continued to work through his cancer treatments until a week before he died Jan. 21 at his Bridgeville home.
“With Mike, I didn’t view him working through (his treatment) as a surprise at all,” Eggleston said. “The more you get to know someone, you realize that was right up his alley and it was his will to push on. Whether it was a project or a problem in the township, he had a great ability to keep pushing things along and getting things accomplished, and I think in some ways, he had the same approach on the cancer diagnosis – to keep moving on. Just like in everything else, he pushed hard. He was just a remarkable guy.”
Benton was born and raised in Kansas. He joined the Marine Corps when he was 19 and served 13 years as an aviation electrician and a captain.
Before becoming a Bridgeville resident, Benton also lived in California, Florida, Washington state and Okinawa, Japan.
He was hired as township engineer in August 2011, and Eggleston said his duties were far-ranging.
“It’s probably easier to say what he didn’t do, which is not much,” Eggleston said. “His hands were in a little bit of everything without a doubt.”
Benton also worked as the director of engineering and planning and township zoning officer, as he was focused on new development coming into the township. He also worked to connect the community with sidewalks and trails and was the “catalyst” of the township’s traffic task force.
“He was key to all of the development projects that have been coming in,” said Andrea Iglar, the township’s community development director. “There are so many projects he contributed to. It would have been nice for us to see his satisfaction when they were completed. He definitely had a lot of great visions and worked diligently to achieve what he could to make them happen.”
Eggleston said Benton always had a “roll up your sleeves” mentality about his work.
“I think the military, which was long before I met him, helped shape his approach to work,” Eggleston said. “He was never a guy to say ‘I can’t do it,’ or ‘I’m too busy.’ He was a guy who said, ‘Bring it on, let’s go.’ He was always the first guy in and usually the last guy out.”
Benton’s “accessibility,” Eggleston said, is something many in the township praised about him.
“He loved being a part of what we had going here. He was always very straightforward with the developers,” he said. “I can’t tell you how many of the developers have reached out the last couple of days (to tell stories) about Mike about how much of a terrific, professional, straight forward, honest and hard-working guy he was and (how they) appreciated everything about Mike.”
Though he only worked at the township for a little more than six years, Eggleston said it felt like a “lifetime.”
“It almost feels like he was here 30 years with the amount of stuff he was able to fill and accomplish in such a short time,” he said. “That’s really a legacy to the unique individual he was.”
Eggleston said Benton was the type of coworker who improved the work and lives of those around him.
“You’d be hard-pressed to find someone here who wasn’t motivated and inspired by Mike,” Eggleston said. “To say he’ll be sorely missed is an extreme, extreme, extreme understatement.”