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For more than four decades in education, Luverne social studies teacher Jerry Benson collected books and keepsakes of historic figures.
Benson retired in 2017 due to cancer, and more than 6,000 books in his collection are now finding new homes, thanks to former LHS history teacher Keith Erickson.
Family members and former school colleagues began moving books on Oct. 17 to Erickson’s garage at 746 N. Cedar Avenue where the books are being sold for $1 or given away to interested parties.
“Anyone who is a teacher gets books for free,” Erickson said.
Within days hundreds of books left the Erickson garage to find new homes at area schools, former students’ homes and even back to the Luverne classroom where Benson spent the last years of his teaching career.
The book sale is open daily from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Erickson garage through Sunday. All proceeds — $2,000 so far — are going back to Benson.
Passion for history
Through his 47 years of teaching, Benson would often purchase books at discount stores and read them from cover to cover.
“I didn’t realize I had so many,” Benson said Friday from his new home in The Oaks in Luverne. “I am so happy they are finding new homes.”
Benson said his dad sparked his interest in reading during his childhood in Silver Bay. However, he credits an elementary teacher for helping him overcome a reading disorder and nurture his love of stories about people and human conflict.
All this, he said, contributed to his large book collection.
“They were my pride and joy,” Benson said. “I spent many a winter’s night reading.”
Back to the classroom
Benson began teaching in 1970 in the Magnolia school district. When the high school merged with the Luverne district 11 years later, he joined the Luverne staff as a social studies teacher.
Canaan Petersen now teaches social studies and geography in the same classroom and is displaying some of Benson’s collectibles and presidential statues once again.
“It’s very special to have stuff of Jerry’s even though he wasn’t a teacher of mine,” said Petersen, who graduated from LHS in 2003.
“Jerry is very much in here, and it’s very cool.”
Petersen was a sophomore when Benson transitioned from teaching high school to middle school social studies.
Petersen has his own collection of items accumulated during 11 years of teaching history in Colorado and South Dakota, and he jokingly calls his room a “museum” of hundreds of interesting pieces.
Expanded to other schools
While Benson’s historic collectibles made their way back to his former classroom, nearly 1,000 hardcover books have been given to local schools and students.
His former Magnolia school (now Southwestern Youth Services) received book donations, as have Central Lyon in Rock Rapids, Iowa, and Hills-Beaver Creek High School.
At H-BC, media paraprofessional Lexi Moore chose many non-fiction military books and many biographies from Benson’s collection.
“Due to limited budget funds our school’s non-fiction collection suffers,” she said.
“(Now) we’ve added lots of newer books on the politics of the last 20 years as well as great titles of important historically significant people and events.”
Benson’s books will join the H-BC library collection next year, and each will have a sticker on the inside cover recognizing the donation.
“I feel it will not only recognize the generous gift, but hopefully inspire my students to see the value in making donations,” Moore said.