Benedict Lupica

Benedict Lupica, who lived for 58 years on 7 Ohio Ave. in Nashua with his wife, Lee, died peacefully on the morning of March 27 with his wife at his bedside, two months after he had celebrated his 99th birthday.

His is an American life worth knowing about, from the time he grew up as one of 10 children in Sherrill, N.Y. He was a son and brother and friend to anyone ever lucky enough to know him. Later he was a father to his two children, Mike and Susan, and grandfather to Mike’s children, Christopher, Alexander Bene, Zachary, and Hannah; and Susan’s two sons, Matthew and Josh.

And then six days before Bene’s 99th birthday, he greeted his first great-grandson, born to his grandson Christopher and his wife, Kim, and named Charles Michael Lupica.

He and Lee were still honorary members of Nashua Country Club at the time of his passing. They were fixtures there for over a half-century, as Bene served on various committees, most notably his time as one of the most popular golf chairmen in the club’s history (it allowed him to brag on his one hole-in one on the second hole), and arguably best bridge player NCC ever had. It is fair to say that there was never a more popular member of the club than Bene Lupica. It was often said that you knew when he was in the Grill Room, because everybody in there was smiling.

This was a life of kindness and grace and endless good cheer. And he was brave. By the time he was 20 years old, after never having been more than 40 miles from Sherrill growing up, he was a bombardier in Liberator B24s, flying 31 missions over Europe in 1944 and ’45 out of the 165th Bombardment Group and 783rd Bombardment Squadron. In all ways, he was a member of the Greatest Generation.

He loved his faith and loved his family most of all. His daughter Susan remembers her sons’ summers with their Grammy and Papa at Nashua Country Club; and remembers the large, joyous family gatherings before that with all of her first cousins back in upstate New York. Somehow, she says, they all seemed to organize around her father, because Bene Lupica loved family the way he loved his country. When he came back from the war, he was still working for the government as a logistics officer, finishing his career at Hanscom Field in Bedford, Mass. before retiring.

He was married to the former Lena Jane Logiudice for 72years. He was everything a father is supposed to be, and grandfather, everything a husband is supposed to be. He had enduring friendships in Nashua with the Fisher family, the Stewart family, the Burke family. They will miss him the way his surviving family will, Mike and his wife Taylor and their children and new grandchild, Susan and her husband Michael Galardi and their children. Bene Lupica is also survived by a sister-in-law, Gina, and a brother-in-law, Anthony DiVeronica of Canastota, N.Y.

Finally, Bene Lupica was everything an American is supposed to be. He didn’t just make the country better by fighting for it as a young man. He made everybody who ever knew him better. May he rest in peace. His spot in the hearts of

Be his family and friends will be filled forever. 

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