Donald E. Benz, 92, Buffalo store owner who introduced hundreds to scuba diving

October 24, 1931 – May 14, 2024

Donald Benz was in his 30s and did not know how to swim when he was advised to start using a swimming pool to rehabilitate following a back injury.

He started swimming laps at the Ken-Ton Family YMCA, then discovered a new hobby that changed the course of his career: scuba diving.

He became a pioneering figure in diving in the Buffalo area. A master diver and instructor, he introduced hundreds to diving at the YMCA and through Niagara Scuba Sports at 2048 Niagara St., where a large boat anchor he salvaged from the bottom of Lake Erie was on display in front of the store.

He died after a brief illness on May 14 in Miami, Florida, where he had resided for nine years. He was 92 years old.

Born in Buffalo’s Riverside neighborhood, Donald Earl Benz was the only child of Earl and Ada Pirson Benz, who operated an appliance store on Hertel Avenue that his paternal grandfather opened during the Depression.

He grew up in Kenmore, developed a passion for photography and was banned from swimming after recovering from an ear infection.

He graduated from Kenmore High School in 1950 and later attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, where in 1954 he earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering with a minor in thermodynamics.

He worked on jet engines for General Electric in Schenectady and Orange, New Jersey, and then was drafted into the Army. Stationed at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland, he served in a ballistics laboratory conducting research on large munitions and radar systems.

While on leave from the Army, he was married on October 27, 1956, to Marilyn A. Wilhelm in St. Augustine Catholic Church in Troy. After his release in 1958, they moved to his childhood home in Kenmore.

He joined the family business, which became Benz Electric Refrigeration Service, and moved it to Niagara Street. The company installed and maintained refrigeration and air conditioning systems at restaurants and other locations, including Darien Lake Amusement Park.

Mr. Benz sold the refrigeration business in 1973 and started Niagara Scuba Sports in the same location with his wife, who also became a master diver.

The store was a retail operation providing diving instruction, sales, service and travel, as well as wholesale distribution of diving-related products. For a time he taught a credit course in scuba diving as an adjunct instructor at the University at Buffalo.

The store became the center of a growing local community of divers and Mr. Benz led numerous diving expeditions, mainly to the Caribbean. He has won awards for his underwater photography.

He also became an accomplished ice diver, venturing into frigid waters, often in Georgian Bay, after cutting a hole in the ice layer with a chainsaw. For several years, through Niagara Scuba Sports, he sponsored a January 1 float in the Niagara River to celebrate the new year.

His commitment to the hobby waned, however, after the death of his daughter Dianne in July 1983 in a diving accident in the Niagara River.

His love of photography led him and his wife to create one of the region’s first rapid film development services, Niagara One-Hour Photo, in the dive shop in 1985. Their photo lab has also done considerable work for businesses. They sold the diving and photo businesses in 1993.

By then, Mr. Benz had returned to engineering at Sherwood Industries in Lockport, which manufactured valves, including high-pressure valves for scuba diving cylinders.

Beginning in 1988, he rose through the management ranks, eventually overseeing a workforce of 300 at Sherwood’s Wheatfield plant. He was captain of the company’s scientific dive team and tested equipment on dives in the Caribbean and Arctic.

“He loved being part of a big company and doing big things,” his son Douglas said. “He loved finding solutions to big problems and making things work the way they were supposed to.”

After retiring in 2000, Mr. Benz converted his garage into a woodworking shop, where he designed and built furniture for members of his family. A lifelong aviation enthusiast, he went on to build dozens of model airplanes.

He and his wife moved to Fort Pierce, Florida, in 2011. After her death in 2015, he traveled to Miami to be near his daughter Michele.

Surviving are two sons, David Belford-Benz and Douglas J.; three daughters, Cynthia “Cindy” McDonald, Renee Grannell and Michele Sciascia; 12 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be offered at 10 a.m. Wednesday at St. Mark Catholic Church, 401 Woodward Ave.