Benjamin Borax
SGT in 3133rd Signal Service Co
ASN#32335481
Born 1909 in NY, Died 2000
Artist
County of residence at enlistment: New York County, NY
Other residence(s): New York, NY; Rockville Center, NY; Floral Park, NY
United States Army, European Theatre of Operations
Occupation before the war: credit men
College education before the war: 3 years
Benjamin Borax was born on July 10, 1909 in New York City.
His 1940 draft card says he was self-employed; the 1940 census lists him as a salesman of wholesale dresses. (His father was a pattern maker, also in wholesale dresses, so there was probably a connection there.) His 1942 enlistment record says he was a "credit man" and that he had 3 years of college.
He attended an Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) at Stanford University in 1943-44. (This was a program designed to meet the wartime demand for junior officers and soldiers with technical skills.) He was then stationed at Pine Camp before going to Italy with the 3133 Signal Service Company.
After the war he married Jacqueline Cahan on December 16, 1946, and they honeymooned in Havana, Cuba. They had two daughters: Susan and Patricia.
City directories and passenger lists show him living in Rockville Center, NY in the late 1950s and 1960, and in Floral Park, NY from 1987 on.
During the 1970s through 1990s, he exhibited his collages and paintings at a number of New York galleries. He was also a member of a Long Island artist-run cooperative/gallery by the name of B.J. Spoke. An exhibit at that gallery was reviewed by the New York Times in 1990, and described Ben’s work as “definitely in the superior category. . . . Mr. Borax’s two collages use scraps of paper to suggest monolithic constructions. His witty takeoff of Stonehenge, in which gaily painted torn newspaper substitutes for imposing slabs of rock, proves that impressive results can be achieved on a small scale.”
He died on April 6, 2000 in Floral Park, NY and is buried at Mount Lebanon Cemetery in Glendale, NY.
Sources:
1940 draft card
1942 enlistment record
1943 Army Specialized Training Program at Stanford (see p. 8)
https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:ry701cg4243/PC0111_b01_f05.pdf
1946 marriage license
1975 article in the NY Daily News about a gallery show
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/53058061/
1989 article in the NY Times about a gallery show
1990 article in the NY Times about a gallery show
2000 Find a Grave record
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/98083676/benjamin-borax
2000 Social Security death index
ancestry.com/search/collections/3693/records/5802696?tid=&pid=...
2024 (August 7) email from daughter Susan Borax to Rick Beyer