Benjamin Valentine Hess III passed away unexpectedly on September 16, 2025 at his apartment at the Bozeman Lodge in Bozeman, Montana. Born in Raleigh, North Carolina on October 28, 1942, Ben was the son of Benjamin Valentine II and Zelma Hess. He spent his formative years in Miami, Florida and was exceedingly fond of recounting a childhood spent skimming across the swamp on airboats with his father in the Everglades.
Ben graduated from David Lipscomb College (now known as Lipscomb University) in 1965 with a double major in History and Psychology and quickly entered the financial sector as an Assistant Bank Manager in Nashville, Tennessee before moving to Miami where he accepted a position as a recruiter and Human Resource Assistant Manager for Southeastern Bank.
Ben was an exceptionally talented self-taught portrait artist, a gift he discovered he had in college. Over the course of the next five decades, Ben would go on to create pencil, charcoal and pastel portraits of a wide variety of subjects from the indigenous peoples of Alaska (such as the Inuit and Aleut) to the Cowboys of the American West in Wyoming and the Native American tribe members of Florida. His works have sold to art collectors across the United States and abroad.
Ben met Patricia Lynch in 1988 and they were married the following year. They made their home in Bozeman, Montana in 1991 and lived together happily there for 36 years. Ben was preceded in death by his loving wife, Patricia, a little more than three weeks earlier on August 24, 2025. He is survived by his two children from a previous marriage, Justin (wife, JoAnn) and Cheyenne; and four grandchildren, Rachel (husband, Patrick Renison), Riley, Shane and Elise.
A private joint Memorial Service for both Ben and Pat will be held on September 27, 2025.
