Fred Benioff

“As far as I know, Fred Benioff left the business in Allentown in 1919 and was never formally affiliated with if after that. I visited the Allentown store in the late 1980s and visited with Shim, Abe, and Abe’s daughter Anne. Based on that conversation and subsequent research, I think the story goes something like this: Fred learned the fur trade from his father and may also have worked for family in New York City. Sometime around 1912, Fred started working in Allentown and had his own business. Isaac had been spending winters in New York but most likely began to work with Fred in Allentown by 1915. Isaac (and maybe others in the family) kept the Allentown operation going when Fred left for the Army in 1918. He was in France when the war ended and wrote/wired to say that he was planning to stay in Europe and offered to sell the Allentown business to Isaac. Isaac accepted and the whole Viola family moved to Allentown in 1919. In the end, Fred stayed in Europe only briefly. He was probably in California by 1920. He registered to vote in San Francisco in 1921. At that point, I think he was in partnership in Benioff Brothers with his older brother David. That partnership ended in 1924. Fred struck out on his own with Fred Benioff Furs.”

He had a store in Eugene, Oregon, in the Miner Building.

Charles Salkin – September 26, 2023

He was born in NYC, 8 April, 1892.

He married Helen Louellen Harris on May 4, 1924. She attended the University of California. They went to Europe on the Berengaria for their wedding trip. They had two sons. After much public wrangling in the courts, the couple divorced in 1941.

He married Sarah H. Smullen in 1960.

Fred Benioff died on 9 June, 1967, while vacationing in British Columbia, at the age of 75. He donated his body to the University of Washington Hospital in Seattle.