The Morning Call from Allentown, Pennsylvania • 13

SECOND THE MORNING CALL, ALLENTOWN, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1980 KUTZTOWIM Continued From Page B1 decision whether to provide transportation to the vo-tech school. The last negotiating session ended about 10 p.m. Wednesday, the day before classes were to resume for the district's 2,118 pupils. The KATA statement said its membership then unanimously rejected the board's last offer. Meeting in the district high school, "The association then voted over whelmingly to stop services to the district rather than work without a contract," the statement continued.

The strike officially began just after midnight yesterday. Hillman said the district had suggested fact-finding or an extension of the old contract as a means of averting a strike, but both were rejected by the union. Fact-finding is a state-supervised procedure under which a strike is banned for at least 45 days. While the previous contract was being hammered out in 1978, KATA members returned to their jobs under a contract extension into October. Picket lines went up at all district schools at 7 a.m.

yesterday, and were expected to remain there during school hours until the work stoppage ends. Hillman termed the marchers "very orderly and courteous." Although he said the district was still honoring the mutual agreement banning public disclosure of the issues, Hillman provided these details about the contract that expired June 30, a document that is part of the public record: Contract language on job security. The old contract has no reference to this subject. Fringe benefits. Prominent fringe benefits under the expired contract were medical insurance including major medical, maternity benefits, an income protection plan, maximum $10,000 life insurance, 70 percent reimbursement for dental expenses (to a $100 per year maximum), one personal leave day annually, emergency leave as needed and tuition reimbursement (maximum, nine credits y.

Salaries and cost of living. In 1979, each teacher received an across-the-board raise of $1,150, an amount determined partly by the rise in the cost of living during 1978. Over a base raise of $800, the teachers received an addi-. tional $50 for each half-percent rise in the cost-of-living index above 5.5 percent, up to a cap of 9.5 percent. Starting salary for a bachelor's degree holder was $11,689 last term; average salary was about $15,570.

Buses did not run yesterday, and the district telephoned selected parents to alert any students who might have been waiting for buses that schools were closed. Residents were urged to monitor releases about the situation in the mass media, and to call the district's main number (683-7361) if they need in- formation. How long will the strike continue? "I don't have any idea," Hillman answered. "The (school) board would like to see the strike settled as quickly and fairly as possible." Said the KATA statement "The KATA is very much interested in settling a contract as quickly as possible and has requested continued bargaining around the clock if necessary." conversationalist. An accomplished amateur artist ww 1 1 mm wwww ana canoomsi, nenner was a iui iner vice president and trustee of the Allentown Art Museum, a former member of the Trexler-Lehigh County Game Preserve Commission and a former director of the old Lehigh Valley Trust Co.

of Allentown (now an IVB division). For many years, he was a director of the Industrial Development Corp. of Lehigh County. He served on various other boards in the community in his earlier years. Born in Slatington on March 24.

1893. he was a son of the late Ulysses F. and Mary Remaly Benner. He graduated with honors from Allentown High School and took courses in business administration at Lehigh University. Rofnm ho ontororl tho IVatinnal that the general "couldn't wait until I got out of service so I could be his secretary.

"The first day on the job in Allen-town I had to go to the courthouse and search titles of farms for him. It was something I really knew nothing about, but I suppose I must have done it satisfactorily. "The general was an impatient man in some ways when he wanted something, he wanted it immediately but I never got a cross word from him and I was certainly far from infallible." Benner said Gen. Trexler "bought farms as often as someone else buys a -pair of shoes even more often. At one time, he had about 250 farms with at least 10.000 acres under cultivation." Benner said the most surprising incident in his association with the general was the day he called Benner in and said.

"Cap, I named you an executor and trustee in my will." The Trexler estate has grown to more than $23 million over the years. A condition of the will is that a percentage of the earnings be added to the principal each year. That has become a hedge against inflation, i Since 1933. the foundation has distributed generous grants to Allentown lor its park system and to many educational, charitable and religious institutions that were either wholly confined to Lehigh County or area organizations BEIMIMER Continued From Page B1 and a cartoonist recently hailed by the Call-Chronicle's Bud Tamblyn. Yet he was also a low-key individual which was also a hallmark of the operation of the Trexler Foundation itself.

He came to work for Gen. Trexler on Nov. 16. 1916. the day after Benner was mustered out of the Pennsylvania National Guard.

In a Call-Chronicle interview with Albert Hofammann on the 50th anniversary of that event. Benner said his long tenure with the Trexler fortune was a "great experience and a liberal education." "When Gen. Trexler needed a clerk at Mt. Gretna and learned I had some knowledge of purchasing and shorthand, he had me transferred from a hospital unit to his headquarters. "I was a private first class when I appeared with a typewriter before the general.

In two weeks' time. I was a quartermaster sergeant senior grade. Promotions came fast in those days. "The general loved titles, you know, and he couldn't wait until I got one. The title Benner got was captain.

Ordnance Department. Pennsylvania National Guard and he took pride in having "Capt." in front of his name ever after. Benner also said in that interview And upon Benner's advice, the Trexler Foundation responded time after time, year after year sometimes with a once-and-done grant, sometimes with a five or six-figure allocation spread over several years. The annual court approval of Trexler Foundation cash distributions is anxiously awaited by welfare and service organizations in Lehigh County which have sought foundation help for operating or capital programs. In his younger years, Capt.

Benner attended gatherings of many of the organizations which benefited from the Trexler Foundation. He particularly made it a point to attend the annual dinners of the YMCA and the Boy Scouts. Benner was instrumental in the creation of Allentown's Municipal Golf Course, and it was renamed Benner Fairways in his honor. Cedar Crest College awarded Benner an honorary doctor of humane letters degree in 1975. Awards from such groups as the Allentown Boys' Club and the Minsi Trail Boy Scout Council were made to the entire Trexler Foundation board of trustees, with Benner there as the recipient.

Though short physically. Benner was known to be long on good humor. His smile, his sparkling eyes and his familiarity with Pennsylvania German made him a favorite story-teller and with a large segment of its service to Lehigh County people. In the 50th anniversary interview. Benner also said, We had a lot of good breaks, and working for a good cause I guess you're entitled to them.

Of course, looking back. I can think of some things we might have done differently." A Morning Call editorial at the time praised the captain: "No one knew Gen. Trexler better or was more familiar with his ideas and his method of operation than Benner. No one was more familiar with his cherished hopes for the growth of this community and the welfare of its people." As executive director. Benner did all the interviewing with any new groups that wanted help from the foundation.

All requests for aid came through him. He was an employee of the estate right from the start, but the administrative duties were shared with others until that executive director designation by the board in 1947. Trexler wings at both Allentown and Sacred Heart hospitals are just two of the many memorials to Trexler philanthropy. The leadership of virtually every charitable and educational institution in Lehigh County would begin its fund-raising efforts for any major project by trooping to the Trexler estate of ices to see Capt. Benner.

Guard, he worked for William H. Taylor and Lehigh Portland Cement Co. in Allentown. He was a member of St. James United Church of Christ, Allentown.

His first wife, the former Nettie L. Ludwig. died in 1965. He married Mrs. Carolyn Thomas in 1969.

Surviving, besides his second wife, are a son. Nolan P. Jr. of Allentown; a daughter, Bettie. wife of Charles L.

Garrettson. of Allentown: four grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren. DICK COWEN NOLAN P. BENNER Sewer, water plans fell 'between the cracks' ED WANT "One that's fallen between the cracks" was how Lower Macungie Township Engineer Frank Waldraff last night described a situation where sewer and water plans for two land division proposals had been overlooked. As a result of the omission, the supervisors established a policy of ask ing the planning commission to verify that sewage plans have been properly signed and approved by the township sewage officer.

Waldraff explained the planners had not looked to see that sewer plans were present because it assumed the sewage office had done it. He said it was discovered yesterday morning that the plans to come up at the supervisors' meeting for approval were incomplete. The parties involved were then notified. It is the responsibility of engineers to be familiar with township requirements for dividing property. Waldraff said.

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