Lucy Wilson Benson died July 17, 2021 at home in Amherst, MA from congestive heart failure.  She was 93.

Lucy Wilson Benson served as the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs from 1977 to 1980. When Benson was named to this post, it was the highest position ever held by a woman in the United States Department of State. About her experience as Under Secretary of State, Benson said, ““Don’t ask me what it feels like to be a woman under secretary of state, because I don’t know. I do know what it is like to be an under secretary of state, however.”  “Washington Talk Women in Government; the Pioneers”, The New York Times, Nov. 13, 1986  https://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/13/us/washington-talk-women-in-government-tales-of-the-pioneers.html

Prior to joining the State Department, Benson served from 1975 to 1977 as Massachusetts Secretary of Human Services under Governor Dukakis, and as national President of the League of Women Voters from 1968-1974.

One of her many achievements as League president was the admission of men to full membership.  Her husband, Bruce Benson, became the first male member to sign up.  “I had his check with me at the national convention,” Benson said.

In 1976-77, Benson was a member of the Select Committee on the Administration of Congress, appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives.  She served on the Advisory Committee of the United States Commission on Civil Rights from 1964-71 and the President’s Special Committee on United States Trade Policy in 1968. She chaired the Special Economic Policy Mission to Japan in 1972.

She was also a Trustee of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Vice Chairman of the Atlantic Council of the United States, and member of the Council on Foreign Relations, International Institute of Strategic Studies, and the Trilateral Commission. 

Benson served as a Trustee of Smith College, Lafayette College, the Brookings Institution, and the National Urban League.  She also served as a director of several corporations including, COMSAT, Continental Group, Combustion Engineering, General Reinsurance, Grumman, Logistics Management Institute, Science Applications International, and several funds of the Dreyfus Corporation.  

She received honorary degrees from Amherst College, Bates College, Bucknell University, Carleton College, Clark University, Lafayette College, Springfield College, University of Maryland at College Park, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Wheaton College.  She received a Smith College medal in 1969.

Benson was born New York City, August 25, 1927.  She received a B.A. from Smith College in 1949 and a M.A. (history) in 1953.  She was a Radcliffe Fellow from 1965-67.  In 1950, Benson married Bruce B. Benson, professor of Physics at Amherst College, who died in 1990.  She is survived by her niece, Lucy James Ordoobadi of Washington, DC and nephew, Ned James, of Ashfield, MA.