Benham was a top athlete, administrator

By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer

Clayton Benham headed O'ahu's private-high school athletic association since its formation in 1970. Advertiser library photo • May 19, 1995

Benham had been the only executive secretary of the Interscholastic League of Honolulu since it was re-structured as a private-high school athletic association in 1970. He also headed the league for several years before that, when Honolulu's public high schools also belonged to the ILH.

"He was the heart and soul of the ILH," retired Punahou School athletic director Ralph Martinson said yesterday. "He gave very effective leadership as a liaison between principals and athletic directors. He was meticulous in his job, and apart from that, a good guy."

Benham retired from teaching in 1982 after 28 years at the Kamehameha Schools, but continued to be active in high school sports administration and as a tennis player until he was stricken Friday morning with a brain abscess.

His wife took him to Queen's and he slipped into a coma Friday night.

Tony Sellitto, retiring this year as basketball coach and athletic director at Hawai'i Pacific University, said, "Clay was my best friend, one of the finest men and a true advocate of the students at the schools in Hawai'i."

"What a loss to the league and to the state," Punahou athletic director Tom Holden said.

Sellitto and Benham had planned to leave tonight for Saturday's Kentucky Derby, which Benham had never seen in person.

Benham was a former Territorial tennis champion and played four times a week. He played three sets last Thursday, a friend said.

Frank Mauz, a sportswriter in the '70s and '80s and long-time observer of high school sports, said Benham "had to make some tough decisions as ILH secretary. What I admired was that he always had the best interest of the student-athlete at heart."

Mauz and others also remembered Benham's ability to project warmth, and make people feel better about themselves.

"Whenever we met at a game, it was like seeing an old friend," Mauz said.

Benham was born on Oct. 5, 1920 in Kahuku, where his father was a sugar plantation store manager.

He was an outstanding athlete in football, baseball and tennis at Kamehameha Schools and graduated in 1940.

He played football and tennis at San Mateo, Calif., junior college for a year. As war clouds were gathering over the United States, he returned to Hawai'i and went to work for the Honolulu Police Department

Benham left HPD to enroll at the University of Denver in 1950 and was the No. 1 player on the tennis team. He earned his bachelor of arts degree in 1953 and was working on his master's at Stanford when he was offered a job teaching and coaching at Kamehameha in 1954.

He was head football coach at Kamehameha from 1954-57 and supervisor of physical education and athletics from 1958-73. He was also tennis coach and taught social studies and physical education.

Blane Gaison, current co-athletic director at Kamehameha, recalled that Benham was one of his teachers there.

Survivors include Benham's wife, Marian; brothers Roy and Howard, all of Honolulu; sisters Elouise of Honolulu and Eula of Denver; daughter, Betsy, of Half Moon Bay, Calif., and her children, Renee, Maile and Camille.

Services are pending.