Benjamin Clement Nance II

S/SGT in 603rd Engineer Camouflage Bn : Co C

ASN#14156455

Born 1921 in TN, Died 2004

Artist

County of residence at enlistment: Davidson County, TN

Other residence(s): Nashville, TN

United States Army, European Theatre of Operations

Occupation before the war: student

College education before the war: St. Joseph's College (IN) 2 years

Notes: Certificate of Merit; CG SP TRS, 12th A Gp, 2 Jun 45. Meritorious Service: Platoon Sgt, Germany, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, 25 Jun 44-29 Mar 45; Rank changed from PVT in Ghost Army roster to S/SGT per Awards and Decorations file

Source: 603rd Camouflage Engineer Roster provided by W. Anderson; Awards and Decorations; Company C roster; photo courtesy Ancestry® and St. Joseph College 1942 yearbook

Ben Nance was born on February 17, 1921 in Nashville, TN, the youngest of four children. His father was a hardware clerk, and later the stock foreman in the state garage for the Tennessee highway department.

Illustration from St. Joseph's yearbook in 1942; Ben was the artist.

He graduated from Father Ryan High School in Nashville, and went on to study at St. Joseph College in Collegeville, IN. There he did many line illustrations for the 1942 yearbook.

He registered for the draft on February 16, 1942 in Indiana, while still a student. He enlisted on September 19, 1942 at Camp Forrest in Tennessee, and like other artists, was assigned to the 603^rd Engineer Camouflage Battalion.

He served in Europe with the unit during the war. Fellow soldier Art Singer, in a 1943 letter home, praised his barbering skills. He was discharged from the Army on October 2, 1945 and returned to Nashville.

The 1950 census shows him using his art skills as a commercial artist in a department store. On April 19, 1952 he married Eleanor Louise Harrison—they would go on to have five children: Carol Ann, Kitty, Ben, Tim, and Jean.

At some point, Ben went to work for the Nashville Post Office. In the 1960s, he was working as an engineer for the maintenance division of the Nashville P.O., where he and a colleague invented an “edger-stacker machine.” Developed in 1963, the device doubled the speed at which letters could be cancelled. By 1964, Nashville was sharing the device with other Tennessee post offices, and by 1966 the machine was in use in 22 U.S. cities. The Smithsonian Postal Museum website reports that “the Post Office Department was proud of this machine because it had been created by postal employees. Overall, the edger-stacker was very successful. The ‘home-made’ device showed an annual return on investment ranging from about 70% at Wichita, Kansas, to 566% at Flint, Michigan.”

In 1966, the Nashville Metro Post Office received a presidential citation as the “outstanding Post Office of the nation” for that year. Ben and his colleague also received presidential citations for their work on the machine.

In addition, he was well-known locally for creating the 3D Christmas stamps that hung in the Broadway Post Office in Nashville every year. He eventually retired after 40 years with the Post Office.

Ben was a lifelong parishioner at the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Nashville, where he sang in the choir every Sunday.

He died on November 1, 2004 and is buried at Calvary Cemetery in Nashville, TN.