My Uncle Ben would have been eighty years old today. For the last several years of his life, I was his legal caretaker, a role I learned about after he had a bad fall and was determined to be unable to manage his affairs or life independently. Uncle Ben named me in his legal documents as the person to take responsibility if he became incapacitated, which was a surprise to me but a role I accepted. It's not something I have discussed much, except to a very few persons, and I have taken it very seriously. It's been a huge responsibility and honor; I've done what I can to live up to the evident trust my uncle had in me.
His obituary, with a couple minor edits (and fewer photos) appears below. It was written primarily to be printed in the Honolulu newspaper and various alumni publications. It doesn't talk about his eye-rolling sense of humor, his fierce independence, and his photographic memory. I wondered whether the hurricane season was so quiet because he was no longer around to reassure us and translate the reports for us, and have missed him and his interpretations during the last few weeks.
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Benjamin
Cory Hablutzel, late of Honolulu, died peacefully in Cary, North Carolina, on
May 31, 2022. He was born in
Albuquerque, New Mexico on October 12, 1942 to Charles Edward Hablutzel Jr. and
Electa Marguerite [Cain] Hablutzel while his father, a PhD in physics from
CalTech, was a key member of the team that developed the proximity fuze.
Many
people in Honolulu remember Ben as a runner and, in later years, a walker, but
his first sport was soccer, for which he received a letter at the Baylor (High)
School, from which he graduated in 1960.
Before going to Baylor, he played soprano clarinet in the band at Midway
Junior High School in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Ben
followed his older brother, Philip, to Louisiana State University, where he
joined the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and graduated in 1964 with a Bachelors
of Science degree. He then received a second
B.S. in Meteorology from the University of Utah in 1966 and began his career
with the National Weather Service. Ben
received a Master of Science from Colorado State University in 1970, with a
thesis on “Cross Beam Wind Measuring Techniques”.
Ben’s
first station with the National Weather Service was in Phoenix, where he
focused on the weather satellites. A few
years he later moved to Fairbanks, Alaska, where he began running. On December 17, 1977, he was honored as the
20th person to achieve running the equivalent of the distance from
the capital of Alaska to the capitol of the USA in Washington D.C., and back –
a total of 10,810 miles, most of which he ran in 1976 and 1977. He ran many marathons to achieve these miles,
including his first Honolulu Marathon on December 11, 1977.
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| Uncle Ben in the 1977 Honolulu Marathon. |
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| Uncle Ben in the 1978 Boston Marathon. |
Ben
qualified for, and ran in, the Boston Marathon in 1978. Among Ben’s other achievements and awards are
admission to the Society of Sigma Xi in 1969; status as an LSU “Golden Tiger”;
and a letter from astronaut Frank Borman acknowledging his participation in
NASA’s Manned Flight Awareness Program.
He was treasurer for the local chapter of the National Active and
Retired Federal Employees.
A few years after running in the
Honolulu Marathon, Ben relocated to that city, still as Satellite Manager for
the U.S. Weather Service. Ben was
willing to step up when needed, and became acting Deputy Meteorologist in
Charge (“MIC”) while still the Satellite Manager, then also Acting MIC – with
no new Deputy MIC or Satellite Manager. Ben
continued filling all three management positions for almost two years, and
worked shifts regularly, including many night shifts. His team was noted for their work reporting
on Hurricane Iniki. Ben retired as the
Deputy Chief of the U.S. Weather Service in Honolulu and remained in the city
until 2018.
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| Uncle Ben is on the left. |
After
a fall when he was on the Mainland to attend that year’s NARFE annual conference,
Ben was diagnosed with Parkinson’s and dementia and accepted medical advice
that he should remain closer to family.
He is survived by his older sister Caroline and her children Katy, Beth,
and Yano; his older brother Philip, sister-in-law Nancy, and their children
Margo and Bob; their grandchildren, and several cousins.
Ben
asked that his ashes be scattered and his family will perform this
ceremony at a future date. If anybody
wishes to make a donation in his honor, his family asks that you do so to
Transitions LifeCare in Raleigh, NC, who provided support to Ben and the family
in his final weeks, or to any non-political charity of your choosing.
