At the Saturday funeral for 63-year-old V. Stanley Benfell III, who passed away in a bicycle accident last week, George Handley said of his colleague: “He could never entirely stop the noise of those voices of doubt in his head, but trust in the promises of Christ was the great and simple secret to the life of the beautifully weak and quietly strong Stan Benfell.”
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Benfell had served since 2021 as director of Brigham Young University’s David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies and as an associate international vice president at the school. He was mourned and celebrated on Sept. 12 at an overflowing meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where he had served as a bishop years before.
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Family, friends and neighbors joined with students and faculty colleagues from his long tenure teaching comparative literature at BYU since 1993. Benfell became a respected scholar of late medieval and Renaissance literature, especially Dante, whose most famous work, “The Divine Comedy,” describes an imagined journey through the afterlife.
In his eulogy, Handley referenced Benfell’s favorite novel, “Gilead” by Marilynne Robinson. The lead character imagines in his final years that after death, divine mercy “(gives) us back to ourselves and (lets) us laugh” at earlier anxieties of life — in Handley’s words, letting us “finally see ourselves as we are, including every ounce of our goodness.”
Faith amid anxiety
Benfell once wrote a Wayfare essay describing his experience navigating anxiety with faith.
“With some exceptions, I am not very adept at prayer,” he admitted. “My mind is too loud, it wanders too incessantly, and I find that I have a hard time making a connection with God, since my thoughts all too often bend back to myself.”
But Benfell also described occasional moments of sweet communion, including words given to him as a bishop navigating a difficult situation, after silently praying, “You’ve got to help me here, because I got nothing.”
He cited a passage in Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book “The Cost of Discipleship,” where a German pastor martyred by Hitler in World War II asks why following Jesus can feel heavy when the Lord says “my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Benfell quoted the courageous early leader as stating that “the command of Jesus is hard, unutterably hard, for those who try to resist it,” but when disciples“unremittingly let his yoke rest upon” them, the burden becomes easy and light. “I feel the truth of Bonhoeffer’s reading,” Benfell wrote.
Benfell reflected on finding more of this peace in his own life “when I have not followed my instinct to flee but have instead moved forward, trying my best … to trust in his promise.”
A life rich in love
“I think death teaches that the measure of our life will be the love we inspire,” Handley said. “And by that measure, Stan was pretty amazing,” noting the many times Benfell expressed his love for his parents, siblings, wife and children.
Benfell married Leslie Cantwell in 1988 and raised their three children in a home described at the funeral as “filled with good books, earnest conversation and freshly baked cookies.”
The longtime teacher also had a “gift for turning a classroom into a place of genuine curiosity,” the funeral program noted, “sharing his passion for the humanities with generations of students.”
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“We could talk about anything: BYU basketball, Russian literature, events in Northern Ireland, or how to try to feed and inspire the members of our various organizations,” said David Kirkham, who served with Benfell on the executive board of The International Society.
Kirkham described Benfell as a “wonderful colleague” and “every day a better friend.”
“He was a good man,” Kirkham told the Deseret News. “He loved God and showed it by how much he loved people.”
Erin Pickett, who worked as a receptionist at Benfell’s Kennedy Center office, described in an online comment how Benfell would regularly stop to ask Pickett about her day, despite having a busy schedule himself.
“He listened and was intentional about thanking me for my work,” Pickett wrote. “His testimony of Christ was displayed in his gentle example.”
A love of beautiful literature
In Benfell’s 2011 book, “The Biblical Dante,” he explored how the ancient Italian poet argued that “the truth of the sacred text could only be revealed when engaged with in a transformative manner.”
“Stan had a lifelong practice of morning scripture study,” the funeral program noted, “bringing the same curiosity to his faith that he brought to his scholarship.”
Cory Leonard, associate director at BYU’s Kennedy Center, described Benfell in a statement to the Deseret News as a “lifelong disciple who read Dante and the best books like he studied the scriptures — with diligence, depth, and devotion.
“He will be greatly missed at the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies, where his leadership, experience, and global understanding helped students deepen their faith and academic knowledge.”
Handley remarked on Benfell’s ability “to be touched by sympathy and to weep; his quick and sardonic wit; his incisive judgment about plays, literature, movies and politics; his uncommon forbearance and wisdom when dealing with difficult people or situations” and “his quickness to admit fault” along with “his pleasure in eating and conversing with friends; his love of singing; his passion and appreciation for beauty in nature.”
Ilona Klein left a tribute under his obituary in Italian, describing a “void that words cannot fill.” People “will miss your brilliant mind, your playful spirit and your generous heart,” she wrote.
“And now, like Dante, you too have taken your eternal, well-deserved place beside the ‘Love that moves the sun and the other stars.’”
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