Ben Chapman Aloha and Goodbye

Sadly our friend BEN CHAPMAN
has passed away. Ben was instrumental in
helping us launch the first Monster-Mania Con and he was scheduled to be a guest at our tenth show.
We are dedicating MMCON X to Ben.
At left top is my favorite photo of Ben in the Gill-Man outfit. Below that is one of the Christmas Cards I received from Ben. His love of life and great sense of humor will always be remembered.
We miss you terribly.
Below is an email we received from his wife Merrilee.
Leave it to Ben to think of his fans, even as he was dying.
-Dave

BEN SAYS ALOHA AND GOODBYE
Aloha Friends and Fans:
Ben Chapman wanted me to send an e-mail en masse when he passed away. He left the world he loved at 15 minutes past midnight (HST) February 21, 2008. He took his last breath at the Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu about 12 hours after he was taken off life support (he was on life support about 4 hours).
Ben was transported to ER about 8:30 am on February 20 via ambulance. He lost consciousness and spoke for the last time at our apt (never regained consciousness). Ben's health, as you may know, has not been good forthe last few years, but beame increasingly and alarmingly worse just before Valentines Day (congestive heart failure). He didn't even open his red Valentines-shaped box of See's Candies --- and he was a certified chocolaholic!!
He did, however,eat his home-made 3-course Tahitian Valentines Dinner. He also ate a whole hot dog (he never met a hot dog he didn't love) at the VA snack shop Febuary 19 - a day in which he had three appointments at the VA. Hospice was to begin, including delivery of a hospital bed to our apt -our "glass house in the sky" as we called it - 16th floor with a golf course and mountain view.
The nicest thing he ever said to me was in 2007 when he said out of the blue, "I LOVE MY LIFE" and we loved him - the love of our lives!
Semper Fi Marine!
Me Ke Aloha, Merrilee & ohana (family)
NOTE: There will be a memorial service for Ben on Saturday, March 29, 2008 at 9:00 am, St Augustines By-The-Sea Church, Waikiki with scattering of his ashes to follow off Waikiki. (Hawaiian outrigger canoes) The beach "send-off" will include military honors.