George Bender
88, Rancho Palos Verdes
John and Marie Bender immigrated to Southern California from the Netherlands during World War I, looking for a better life for their family.
They settled in Venice, where one of their four children, George, would embark on his version of the American dream. He married his sweetheart from Venice High, Shirley, and raised four kids amid the ocean views of Rancho Palos Verdes. He joined the Air Force and helped the Korean War effort as a mechanic. He started his own plumbing company in 1958 and spent 31 years as a firefighter with the Los Angeles Fire Department.
George and Shirley Bender found enjoyment in water sports, ran marathons as part of the Palos Verdes Pacers running club and once hiked to the top of Mt. Whitney, at 14,505 feet in their favorite place in the world, the Sierra Nevada.
“He was tough, a tough Dutchman,” said his daughter, Cindy Farber.
Yet ref lecting on Bender’s 88 years after he died from complications of COVID- 19 on March 30, Farber said he was defined not by his toughness, but by the tenderness he had for his wife
“That was his main thing, his love for her,” Farber said. “He never really got over her death.”
A two- time breast cancer survivor, Shirley died in 2004 of pancreatic cancer. She was 72.
But Bender kept going, trying to maintain the same rhythms. He handed down his plumbing company to his son, David, and continued to help Shirley’s charity of choice, Las Candalistas, a philanthropic group of women who raise money for children’s programs in the South Bay. In 2006, Bender even hiked Half Dome at Yosemite National Park on his own, a 13- hour effort.
Bender died from COVID- 19, but Farber said his health had been in decline in the last year. His blood pressure was being monitored, and he had heart problems. The family assumed natural causes took him until they received notification of a positive test for the virus the day after he died in a hospital.
He is survived by a sister, three children, eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren.