Jeffrey Benning

JEFFREY T. BENNING OBITUARY - FINAL
October 31, 2017

Jeffrey T. Benning, age 53 of Mahtomedi, MN passed away peacefully, surrounded by his family, on Friday, October 27th at the University of Minnesota Hospital after a year-long battle with pancreatic cancer.

As a husband, father, son, brother, friend and colleague, Jeff had a unique talent for bringing people together and for finding humor and positivity in even the most difficult situations. Jeff approached his year-long battle with courage, determination, faith in others, and the tenacity of fighting until the end - the same way he approached life.

Jeff graduated from St. John's University in 1986 and went on to earn his CPA in 1987, followed by his MBA from the University of St. Thomas in 1993. Jeff started his career in accounting with Honeywell and then held leadership roles with Sysco and Western Graphics.

As a business and finance executive in health information technology, he was admired as an innovator and expert in the field. Starting in 1999, he began working with companies including ican, Inc., RxHub/Surescripts, and MMS. In 2013, Jeff started consulting and provided technical assistance and expertise to hospitals, public health agencies and other stakeholders in the public health reporting workflow. He worked to build consensus, foster collaboration, and drive action in health information exchange and interoperability in Minnesota and nationwide.

He served on local and national health information technology committees and panels, influencing the advancement of electronic prescribing of medications and laboratory testing. Jeff was instrumental in building RxHub and Surescripts, the national electronic prescribing infrastructure and served as a member of the e-Health Advisory Committee and as co-Chair of the Health Information Exchange Workgroup. He brought integrity, honesty, humor and knowledge to his work.

Jeff had many joys in life including coaching his sons, playing in volleyball and softball leagues, golf outings with SJU friends and Friday night couples' league, annual up-north vacations with extended family, off-road four wheeling, volunteering as treasurer of the Mahtomedi Basketball Association, and, of course, creating cherished memories with Danette and his three sons, Alex, Joey and Tommy.

Jeff will lovingly be remembered by wife and best friend of 21 years, Danette, and their three sons Alex, Joey and Tommy; his parents, Jim and LaVonne; his siblings, Ken (Mary Pat), Kathy (John), and Paul; nieces and nephews, Jason (Jena) Hoekstra, Tyler, Abbey, Claire, Will and Charlie Benning; his grand-niece Kendall Hoekstra; his mother-in-law Joanie Stachowski and in-laws; and many friends both personal and professional.

A Celebration of Life service is planned for Jeff on Friday, November 3rd , with a visitation at 1PM followed by a memorial service at 3PM and food & gathering at 4PM at Bradshaw Celebration of Life Center, 2800 Curve Crest Blvd, Stillwater, MN. Phone: 651-439-5511.

Gifts in memory of Jeff's courageous fight may be made to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network at PanCAN.org.