About Max E. Benitz
Washington State Senator
"Max E. Benitz was a statesman," declared Walt Reese, minister and legislator, who had worked with Max in Olympia before becoming pastor at the Benitz family's home church.
Max was born in Wathena, Kansas, October 9, 1916, and graduated from Wathena High School in 1934, with the nation deep in the throes of the Dust Bowl drought and the Great Depression. Leaving Kansas in 1937, Max moved to the state of Washington, where he started working as a farm hand and later did share farming in Ellensburg. In 1946, Max homesteaded on eighty acres of sagebrush land near Prosser. Max's farm prospered and grew to become a successful 400 acre diversified farming operation.
Long active in the community, agricultural, and political affairs, Benitz was elected president of the Washington State Farm Bureau in 1960. Beginning in 1963, Max was accorded the unusual honor of being on the National Farm Bureau Board of Directors for two consecutive terms. The honor was unusual, because Directors from states such as Washington, with relatively small agricultural production, were normally accorded only one term.
Max Benitz served as a Washington state legislator for twenty-one years including three terms as a representative and four terms as a senator. Benitz's terms in the House ran from 1968 to 1972. His terms as Senator from the state's 8th District ran for four terms from 1974 through 1986. During these terms, Benitz served on numerous committees, chairing Energy and Utilities. Other committees included Education; Environment and Natural Resources; and Transportation. In addition, Benitz's pro-nuclear work included special assignments on the Hazardous Material Planning Committee and the Joint Select Committee for Water Resource Policy. On the national level, Benitz was influential as Vice-Chair of the State and Federal Energy Committee of the National Commission of State Legislators. Benitz also served on two committees of the Council of State Governments: Environment and Hazardous Materials and Ocean Resources.
Benitz toured the Far East and Russia and became well known statewide for his informative slide presentations and commentaries. Max and his farming operation were featured in a film prepared by Walter Cronkite and Robert Schakne for CBS television, comparing typical Russian and American food production methods.
Max and his wife, Marie, had five children, eleven grandchildren, and two great grandchildren at the time of his death in August, 1990, at the age of seventy-three. Marie followed Max in death, passing on in January, 1993. Max’s family was a very important part of his life.
Max was greatly respected and appreciated by his constituents, whether Republicans or Democrats. Max was willing to listen to his constituents, drawing upon his great breadth of knowledge and experience to reach a decision, acting on their behalf and in the best interests of the state and nation he loved so much. Max left an enviable list of accomplishments and would surely have appreciated the honor of having a library named after him, as an instrument in one of his favorite fields, Education.