From bees to meds, diamonds to sleep, Bakersfield native loves doing business
It almost doesn’t matter what business he’s in. Business is in Albert Bensusen.
He’s been a bee keeper, an environmental health specialist, a pharmaceutical rep, a diamond broker, a financial broker, and the longtime owner-operator of Sandman Sleep Lab, which, until it closed last year, was the oldest locally owned sleep disorder testing facility in Kern County.
“My wife says I keep reinventing myself,” Bensusen said.
Often throughout his career, the entrepreneur worked two or three businesses at one time. And sometimes, multiple businesses shared a single phone number.
“I would answer the phone and say, ‘Hello, this is Connie,’” recalled his wife of 32 years. “And the caller might say, ‘Is this Diamond Mine?’
“Yes, it is,” she would answer. And it was.
Al Bensusen, now 78, probably became best known in Bakersfield as “The Sandman,” for his knowledge and diagnostic skills in the field of sleep apnea and other sleep disorders.
“He saved my life,” said
Ralph Bailey, a local talk radio host who suffered for years with a sleep disorder before Bensusen helped him get it under control.
Longtime area resident Phil Rudnick said he owes Bensusen big time for the gift of restorative sleep.
“He was the first, a pioneer of sleep studies in Bakersfield,” Rudnick said.
But over the past year or so, Bensusen has been facing a life-altering challenge. A diagnosis of cancer in his throat resulted in chemo and radiation treatments, which succeeded in removing the cancer, he said. But damaging radiation compromised his ability to swallow food, forcing him to take nutrients through a tube, at least for now.
But even that hasn’t slowed his sense of humor.
As this reporter walked into the couple’s home in southwest Bakersfield, Bensusen was seated on a sofa, taking food from a bag hanging from a metal stand.
“It’s obvious I don’t have good manners,” he deadpanned. “I’m eating in front of you.”
Then he added, “Can I offer you a bag?”
Born in 1942 at Miss Freise’s Maternity Hospital on Eighth Street in Bakersfield, Bensusen would go on to attend Roosevelt School, Castro Lane School and Golden State Junior High. He graduated from Bakersfield High in 1960.
Bensusen’s father was Jewish, his mother, Catholic.
Asked whether he considers himself Jewish or gentile, Bensusen is pragmatic.
“If I’m amongst Jews, I’m a Jew,” he said, betraying just a hint of a smile. “If I’m amongst gentiles, I’m a gentile.”
After first attending Bakersfield College where his broad interests started to focus in on science, he originally hoped to complete his studies at Stanford University. But the cost of tuition proved to be too steep.
Instead, he transferred to San Jose State, where he earned a degree in microbiology.
As a young man, he worked for the Kern County Health Department. But he soon was hired by a multinational pharmaceutical company, which ironically sent him to Stanford, where the science of sleep was born.
“At Stanford, sleep was brand new,” he recalled. Famed researcher William C. Dement was developing the field of sleep study at Stanford, and Bensusen happened to be in the right place at the exact right time.
“I learned sleep at Stanford,” he said.
It was knowledge that would remain tucked away in his memory until he needed it.
In the late 1970s, when he was still working for Big Pharma, he saw an opportunity to become a gemologist and a diamond broker.
“I didn’t know a thing about diamonds,” he remembered.
It didn’t matter. He knew he would learn. In about 1979, he opened Diamond Mine, a store near 24th Street Cafe in downtown Bakersfield.
The gamble worked. Or maybe it was not a gamble at all.
“I had good product,” he said. “I had two goldsmiths who worked for me.”
For years, he wore a loupe, a small magnifying glass used by jewelers. His reputation grew.
“In the diamond business, you could do a million-dollar deal on a handshake, on a phone call,” he said.
Despite his success in so many arenas, his favorite occupation, Bensusen said, was as a bee keeper. But it didn’t seem to matter what he set his mind to, he was intent on doing it well.
“You pick a business. Pick a town,” he said. “And I can make money.
“You just have to offer service,” he said, revealing what may be the secret of his success.
The other secret? Hard work. “I’ll bust my ass,” he said. Bensusen is dismissive of the skills it takes to run a sleep business. And yet he’s not shy about comparing his long history to others in the field.
“The only reason I’m better than anyone in town — and I am — is I care about my patients.
“It’s not rocket science. I take a lot of time with my patients.”
After two marriages and helping to raise a mix of eight children and stepchildren, meeting Connie, a Louisiana Cajun, would change his life yet again. The couple married in New Orleans during Mardi Gras, Feb. 7, 1989.
“These outfits we were wearing at the wedding,” she said, pointing to a wedding photo, “that’s what we were wearing when we met.”
After decades of hard work, and few vacations, life has been an adjustment, to put it lightly, since Bensusen became ill.
With all the time off, he was getting bored. How most people cure boredom is not how Bensusen cures boredom.
“I’ve been studying calculus,” he said. “I don’t know why. I’ll never use it.”
It shows an insatiable interest and hunger for knowledge that has been in his DNA from childhood. He has an interest in just about everything, including happiness.
“He makes me laugh every day,” said Connie. “After 32 years, that’s really something.”