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LOIS M. BENDER, 92, died on January 23, 2022 in Honolulu, Hawai'i.Lois was born in Indiana on September 24, 1929. She received a B.A. in English from Goshen College in 1950. That year she married fellow Goshen graduate Byron Bender. Their union lasted 69 years, until Byron's death in 2020. From 1953 to 1959, Lois and Byron and their growing family lived on Majuro in the Marshall Islands. While on Majuro, in an era of open-air nuclear testing, and where food and consumer goods arrived by ship once a week, Lois served as the island's Postmistress. After two years back in Goshen, and then two years and multiple typhoons on Saipan, Lois and Byron moved the family to Honolulu in 1964. Lois worked for the East-West Center Publications Department and Byron worked as a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Hawai'i. Lois and Byron were members of the Honolulu Friends Meeting. Lois sang alto with the Honolulu Symphony Chorus for many years. She was an expert seamstress down to perfectly matching the pocket patterns on aloha shirts, and a quietly fearsome Scrabble player.
Lois is survived by her sister, Lucille Swartzendruber; by five children, Susan Bender, Sarah Fagan, Catherine Bender, Judith Bender, and John Bender; and by four grandchildren, Emily Fagan, Thomas Fagan, Sophie Bender, and Charlotte Bender. Services will be private.
Arrangements Provided By:
Oahu Mortuary
