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November 06, 2020

In Memoriam: J. Peter Benzie ’70; trustee who guided PC’s campus transformation

By Charles C. Joyce

J. Peter Benzie ’70, Providence College trustee emeritus who helped shape the direction of every major capital project on campus during the last decade, died unexpectedly on Sunday, Nov. 1, at his home in Madison, Conn.

Mr. Benzie maintained close ties and supported his alma mater in numerous ways throughout his life. Most prominently, he served on the Board of Trustees from 2009-2018, chairing the Building and Property Committee for most of that time. He continued to serve on the committee after his membership on the board ended because of term limits. As a trustee, he also served as a member of the Executive, Finance, and Academic Affairs committees.

Aside from his work as a trustee, Mr. Benzie was a co-chair of his class reunion committee’s 50th reunion, which was postponed this past spring because of the pandemic. Earlier this year, he was selected to receive an honorary degree during the Class of 2020’s Commencement Exercises, which also were postponed by the pandemic. That honor will be bestowed posthumously when commencement is rescheduled. In 2015, he was honored with the Personal Achievement Award from PC’s National Alumni Association.

A business major and a member of the Army ROTC Patriot Battalion as an undergraduate, Mr. Benzie also served on the College’s Providence President’s Council for nine years and worked diligently to raise funds for his alma mater. He held roles with both the Executive Campaign Committee and the Annual Fund Committee. He complemented his service to PC with a sustained spirit of financial generosity; he and his wife, Pamela Peters Benzie, were members of the 1917 Society, which recognizes the College’s most generous benefactors with lifetime giving of $250,000 and above.

“Peter was all about giving. He was so pleased with Providence College and all it did for him,” said John M. Sweeney, CFO and senior vice president for finance and business.

Mr. Benzie was “an amazing man” with “a brilliant organizational mind” whose attention to detail, positive demeanor, and concern for others endeared him to people in all walks of his life, added Sweeney.

“He was one of the all-time great and most productive trustees we’ve ever had,” said Joseph P. Brum ’68 & ’18Hon., special assistant to the president for development projects, who has worked at the College for 50 years. “He threw himself into things full throttle. He was upbeat, full of energy, and always well prepared … but he was also one of the most kind and caring persons I’ve ever known.”

Nowhere was his work as a trustee more conspicuous than his leadership of the Building and Property Committee. The College experienced an unprecedented transformation of its campus infrastructure during his tenure — construction of the Ruane Center for the Humanities, Chapey Field at Anderson Stadium, the Arthur F. and Patricia Ryan Center for Business Studies, the PC Science Complex addition, and the Ruane Friar Development Center.

The College also purchased a portion of Huxley Avenue from the city of Providence in 2012 and eventually closed down that section to unite the main and east campuses. Subsequent work led to a drastic physical alteration of the campus in which vehicular traffic was minimized and pedestrian walkways made prominent. New plantings and other landscaping features enhanced the campus’s beauty to cap the transformation.

“He was with us every step of the way on every major capital project from 2010 to now. Peter thought so strategically and was a hands-on guy,” said Sweeney, who noted an interior overlook plaza in the Science Complex is named for Mr. Benzie and his wife.

While Mr. Benzie had a lengthy financial services career, Brum said his interest in property improvement grew out of his involvement in the family’s construction business in Pennsylvania in the 1970s.

“He understood building and planning, plus with his finance background, he was ideal to chair the Building and Property Committee,” said Brum.

Sweeney and Gregory P. Waldron, senior vice president for institutional advancement, were impressed by how detail-oriented Mr. Benzie was and how smoothly he ran meetings, exhibiting a gift to build consensus. Waldron, who has served PC for seven years, recalled that the first in-person meeting he was scheduled to sit in on with Mr. Benzie was cancelled because of snow and was held virtually.

“He managed it flawlessly,” said Waldron. “The ownership he had over the committee and command were special.” He emphasized that Mr. Benzie’s influence on PC from a physical infrastructure standpoint is “unparalleled.”

Waldron went to Mr. Benzie when he wanted someone to lead a goals-setting workshop for his senior leadership team several years ago. He was aware that at the start of each year, Mr. Benzie would reflect on five personal goals he would establish in categories, including work, family, and spirituality. There also was an intentionality in his approach that Waldron felt his team could benefit from through a presentation by Mr. Benzie.

“Peter was terrific, emphasizing the discipline of taking timeout, assessing, planning, and then going forward,” said Waldron.

The high regard people had for Mr. Benzie as a leader and person was grounded in his ability to listen well. He listened not only because he wanted to learn but because that was who he was, they said. Before the trustees’ three meetings each year, he would invite different faculty members to dinner to hear their concerns, and he frequently interacted with students to do the same thing.

“He was a great listener. He had a wonderful ability to make whoever he was speaking to feel respected and appreciated,” said Brum.

College President Rev. Kenneth R. Sicard, O.P. ’78 & ’82G presented the homily at Mr. Benzie’s private funeral Mass at St. Margaret Church in Madison, Conn., on Friday, Nov. 6.

Father Sicard noted that Mr. Benzie was always so well prepared that he even brought to family gatherings a piece of graph paper listing topics to discuss. He approached his membership on PC’s Board of Trustees the same way. Father Sicard, who was College executive vice president and treasurer for 15 years before becoming president, and Mr. Benzie — “the two nerds” — always sat together in the front row at board meetings, Mr. Benzie with a list of points he wanted to discuss and a dashboard of green, red, and yellow icons to measure their progress.

No matter how busy he was in his personal and professional life, Mr. Benzie was totally engaged in what was happening at the College, Father Sicard said. He was a devoted trustee, only missing one meeting in nine years and making decisions affecting finances, academics, and student life. As chair of the Building and Property Committee, he was either on the phone or driving to Providence to meet in person with architects and contractors.

“He had such an eye for beauty as to how these projects should be completed,” Father Sicard said.

But most important was how special he made people feel, Father Sicard said. Mr. Benzie made it a point to arrive a day early to board meetings to have time to take groups of faculty and students to dinner at The Capital Grille.

“He wanted to hear from them and know them,” Father Sicard said. “Imagine the thrill for a college kid to be treated that way. He made them feel like the most important people in the world.”

He loved sailing, boating, and golfing — “I think he found God in these places. It was a very spiritual experience for him” — but also life in the city and travel.

“No matter what he was doing, whether it was recreational or work related, he was totally engaged in it,” Father Sicard said. “He traveled extensively all over the world and wherever he was, he immersed himself in the local culture. He was always so eager to learn about the people he encountered. He had a curious mind and a huge heart.”

Father Sicard said it was fitting that Mr. Benzie died on the Feast of All Saints. Father Sicard chose the Gospel reading for Mr. Benzie’s funeral — the Beatitudes, Matthew 5:1-12 — because it is the Gospel that is read each year on the holy day.

“In future years when we celebrate the Feast of All Saints, I hope you can find comfort that Peter is in the great assembly, praying with you and for you, and when your time comes he will be there to meet you — probably with a detailed list of things he wants you to do,” Father Sicard said.

Mr. Benzie, married for 30 years, was the father of seven and the grandfather of 11. A native of Bridgeport, Conn., he spent 45 years in the financial services industry. At the time of his death, he was senior managing director and founder of Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc., in New York City, a business that provides proxy statements, annual reports, and other financial documents for publicly traded companies.

After serving as a U.S. Army officer in Europe from 1970-1974, he became branch manager and regional manager at Shearson Lehman Brothers. From 1990-96, he was chairman and chief executive officer for Chase Manhattan Investment Services, where he worked under former PC trustee Arthur F. Ryan ’63 & ’90Hon.

Mr. Benzie joined Fidelity Investments in 1996 as executive vice president in the private wealth management group. From 2001-2005, he was executive vice president of Fidelity’s correspondent clearing company. He joined the Brokerage Services Business of Automated Data Processing in 2005 as executive vice president, global chief sales officer. He later became vice president, sales, responsible for global sales for the company’s three businesses. Broadridge Financial Solutions was founded as a spinoff from ADP in 2007.

In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory may be made to Providence College, in care of the Office of Institutional Advancement, 1 Cunningham Square, Providence, RI 02918.