Sunnyvale Ben was born and raised in Hawaii, the 7th of 8 children of Seizo and Misano Yamada. From a large farming family, he learned the value of hard work and intense love of family which defined him throughout his life.
He followed his brothers’ examples by enlisting in the Army after the end of the Korean War, training in office machine repair. With his creative talent and, thanks in part to the GI bill, Ben ventured to the Art Institute of Chicago for a BA in Industrial Design, at the time a little known profession. Before leaving Hawaii, he met Noreen at the Art Academy in Honolulu. Upon graduation from the Art Institute, the first in their families to move to "the mainland" and graduate from college, they married and started a family in the Chicago area.
After several years of "windy city" winters, Ben accepted a new job and moved to California to reduce the travel time for trips back home to his beloved Hawaii. Witnessing and contributing to the early days of high-tech at System Industries, ROLM, and Octel during the day, he worked for innumerable startups and technology companies on nights and weekends as a consultant industrial designer. Through all the years, he loved his profession and thought he had the “best job in the world” designing products that considered human factors, manufacturability and style. His love of his craft naturally led to great success, helped by his gift of gab and personal charm.
Ben retired after the birth of his first grandchild and redirected his energies to doting on Chloe, followed by Alex, Evan, Vivien, Michael and Jonathan through the years. Countless hours and miles of carpooling, pickups, drop offs, sleepovers, dinners, holiday celebrations, and birthdays kept him busier than he ever was while working!
Through it all he continued to build furniture, decks, fishponds, sheds and repair everything. We cannot look around the house without seeing his handiwork everywhere. His lifelong love of exercise kept him going to the gym at 5am and walking 8+ miles a day for years.
After nearly forty years of buying, driving, and evangelizing white German sedans, he agreed it was best to hang up his "chauffeur's hat" when he was diagnosed with Alzheimers. It was a gradual decline but he kept his smile and cheerful demeanor, waving at family, friends, and strangers alike, always happy to see or elicit another smiling face. We are thankful to Pacific Gardens Assisted Living and the caregivers in their memory care unit for his attentive care in the last 18 months.
Ben’s life was very full and he remained understated and humble. His greatest joys were his family, grandkids and good food, with Chicago Cubs baseball or Andy Griffith in between. We will miss him greatly, but have many happy memories to relive. An informal memorial will be held June 24. Email yamadafamily2023@gmail.com for details .