William Benjamin (Ben) Ogilvie
Nov. 7, 2027 – Sept. 18, 2025
William Benjamin (Ben) Ogilvie, 97, a devout Christian, peacefully passed away at his Grass Valley ranch on September 18, 2025, surrounded by loving family members.
Born in Visalia, California, on November 7, 1927, Ben is a descendant of a Tulare County pioneer family that left Missouri in 1857 to travel to California on a wagon train led by his great-great-grandfather, the Rev. Jonathan Blair. During his most formative years, he lived with his father and mother, Howard and Margaret (Peggy) Ogilvie, older brother, Homer, and sister, Virginia, in Three Rivers, California, where his dad ran the local grocery store.
Ben attended high school in Woodlake, 16.5 miles from Three Rivers, where the Presbyterian church founded by the Rev. Blair in 1866 is located on a tract of land donated by Blair for the church building and adjacent Woodlake Public Cemetery. At Woodlake High, Ben played football and baseball and during his junior year, in 1944, he was selected by the faculty to attend California Boys State in Sacramento for eight days in July to gain hands-on experience in how government works and engage in civic leadership. In his senior year, while he was serving as Woodlake High’s student body president, Ben began dating an attractive junior who would become the love of his life, Barbara Ann Garland, daughter of Gordon H. Garland, former speaker of the State Assembly, and Letha Opeal Line Garland.
After graduating from high school, Ben joined the U.S. Army and served as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division. While on leave, he and Barbara were married in a wedding ceremony that took place on February 23, 1946, at the Garlands’ home, which sat amid a picture-perfect orange grove outside of Woodlake. The newlyweds first home was a small house in Woodlake, a gift from Barbara’s parents, where they first lived as a family with their three little boys, each delivered by Dr. Debora Pineles Schor, Visalia’s first woman doctor, at the Visalia hospital: Benny first, followed by Drake and Gregory.
Ben and Barbara moved to Davis in the early 1950s, where Ben enrolled at the university and attended classes while working late shifts at the Golden Gate Dairy company. In 1955, after he had managed a fruit and vegetable stand in Rodeo for a year and a half along the main highway that ran through town, he and his family moved to Pilot Hill where he became the foreman of his father-in-law’s Hereford cattle ranch, which comprised fenced pastures, four reservoirs with pumps for irrigation, and forestland spread over nearly 3,000 acres.
Ben and Barbara were founding members of the Pilot Hill Baptist church, where they taught Sunday school and Ben served as a church deacon and led the song service on Sunday mornings before the sermon. Ben also served on the Northside Elementary School board for several years, eventually becoming the board chairman.
Ben and Barbara both completed their bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Sacramento State and were teachers in the Sacramento Unified School District for many years. Ben taught the upper grades at David Lubin Elementary School and served as a resource teacher, and Barbara taught English as a second language at Sacramento High to hundreds of students from around the world who spoke little or no English.
After Ben and Barbara retired in 1992, they raised registered Shorthorn cattle at their ranch in Grass Valley and built a vacation and weekend house at Lake Tahoe. Ben and Barbara enjoyed taking trips during the summer while they were teaching and after retiring. Over the years, they traveled to British Columbia, drove across the United States to New York, and toured the Washington, D.C., area, where they stayed with Peggy Dufour in Alexandria, had lunch at the White House as guests of Dr. Burt Lee (physician to President George H. W. Bush), and were shown around the West Wing by Dr. Charles Dickens, senior White House policy analyst for the Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, and Technology (FCCSET). At the time, Peggy was the executive secretary (director) of FCCSET’s Committee on Education and Human Resources. On this trip, Ben and Barbara visited Mount Vernon and Arlington National Cemetery. Ben and Barbara also enjoyed weekslong trips to Scotland and New Zealand. And in 2015, Ben traveled solo to France to meet a friend who accompanied him to the Normandy American Cemetery. Ben and his friend then joined Drake and Peggy in Paris to visit the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral, Sacré-Cœur Basilica, Louvre, Sainte-Chapelle, Musée d’Orsay, Napolean’s Tomb, Musée Nissim de Camondo, and other culturally significant sites.
Several years before Barbara passed away in 2017, she began suffering from dementia. As her symptoms progressed, Ben’s love for her never wavered. When his niece, Patty Rigg, began staying with him and Barbara several days a week to assist with Barbara’s care, she proved to be a great blessing. In addition to shopping, washing, cleaning, preparing delicious meals, and cheerfully attending to Barbara’s daily needs, Patty and Ben often talked and laughed together from morning to night. When Ben’s health declined after a serious car accident a few years ago, Patty began staying with him seven days a week, and her continuous presence and constant care were a source of great comfort.
Ben is survived by three sons, Ben II (Linda), Drake (Peggy), and Greg; four grandchildren, Benjamin Ogilvie (Sheila), Sarah Affleck (Joshua), Joshua Ogilvie (Tyanna), and Elizabeth Cambeis (Jeff); and 11 great-grandchildren, Isaiah Niles (Benjamin and Sheila), Nathan, Emily, Rebecca, and Will Affleck (Sarah and Joshua), Adam, Asa, and Ardynn Ogilvie (Joshua and Tyanna), and Josiah, Abigail, and Kayla Cambeis (Elizabeth and Jeff).
A private graveside service will be held on October 3, 2025, at 10 a.m. for family members at the Loney-Sanford Cemetery in Grass Valley.
On November 7 at 11 a.m., a special memorial service will be held at the Lassila Funeral Chapel, located at 551 Grass Valley Highway, Auburn. After the service, lunch will be served. All who knew Ben are warmly invited to attend this joyful celebration of his life.
*All obituaries are submitted by family and friends of the deceased.
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