Memorial Service Is Friday for Ben Krantz

A memorial service will be held at Blair High School at 1 p.m. Friday, August 19, for B. E. “Ben” Krantz, 69, who died August 17, 1983, at Methodist Hospital in Omaha.

The Rev. John Hansen, the Rev. Carl Schattauer, Jr., and Dr. C. C. Madsen will officiate.

There will be no visitation for the former Blair High School superintendent, who donated his body to science.

B. E. “Ben” Krantz was born in Wienona, Illinois, on September 5, 1913, to Frank and Ellen Peterson Krantz. He married Bernice Kaiser on January 30, 1943, in Humboldt, Nebraska.

He was a veteran of World War II.

He attended Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. He received his masters degree from the University of Nebraska.

He had been in school work since 1936, always in the administrative area. He worked for several school districts in Central and southeast Nebraska before coming to Blair in 1957 from Central City, where he served as superintendent.

He was superintendent of schools for the Blair School District for 22 years, before retiring in 1979. He also had served on the Board of Regents of Dana College for 20 years.

The Blair High School athletic complex was named Ben Krantz Stadium in honor of his long and outstanding service to the Blair School system and students who had attended there. He was also recognized as an outstanding administrator by the Nebraska Association of School Administrators.

He is survived by his wife, Bernice, Blair; one son and daughter-in-law, Dr. Brent Krantz and his wife, Sandra, of Fargo, North Dakota. Three grand-daughters, Kirsten, Karin and Karry Krantz, Fargo, North Dakota; one brother-in-law, M. L. Kaiser, New Alm, Minnesota; and his mother-in-law, Mrs. Walter C. Kaiser, Humboldt, Nebraska, also survive him.

Campbell Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements for the services.

~~~ Obituary courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair Public Library at Blair, Nebraska.~~~

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