Reed Michael Benet

Profile Updated: October 21, 2024
Residing In: Jacksonville, NC USA
Spouse/Partner: Jacqueline Benet
Occupation: Entrepreneur
Children: Alexander, born 1992
Phoebe, born 1998
Harrison, born 2000
Military Service: US Marine Corps  
Class Year: 1980
Yes! Attending Reunion
Where did you go to 8th grade?

Belvedere/Tiburon- Del Mar School/Reed

What have you been up to since you graduated from Redwood?

Undergrad: Princeton
MBA: Harvard
Phd Studies: UC Davis

USMC 1984-88, Infantry and Force Reconnaissance Officer, left as a Captain.

Service locations: Quantico, VA, Camp Lejeune, Jacksonville, NC, deployments to California desert and California and Wisconsin snow, and Okinawa and mainland Japan.

Married in 1989 to Jacqueline (Kartchner), AKA "the Colonel's daughter."

Worked in finance in Europe.
Caught San Francisco orginated venture capital backed startup addiction, and still plugging away at that via HeroHomes.com. Just yesterday's rejection was from Jamie Dimon.
Intermittently gainfully employed at Booz Allen Hamilton, Wells Fargo, and Morgan Stanley.
In my semi-retirement teaching English at Jacksonville (NC) Highschool, with my latest "stretch" goal being to ensure all students thank and tell their caregiver who are dropping them off that they love him/her even if they don't mean it. For those who don't mean it, I say the upside is that the caregiver will probably have a heart attack this way.

Alex working for the FDA and living in Brooklyn, NY with his wife Natalie (originally from Menlo Park, CA) and my two grandbabies, Ari and Esti!
Phoebe working in real estate and living in Santa Cruz, CA.
Harry working for JP Morgan Chase and living in Wilmington, DE.

15 minute three-mile run PR, have run 13 marathons (PR 2:51), 1 50-miler (Diego Garcia atoll, Indian Ocean), and 1 100-miler (Leadville, CO), did one Ironman Triathlon, bicycled across the US and Northern Europe, and with Jacqueline hiked the entire 2,193 miles Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine (AKA "the honeymoon from hell).

I still run, but slooooooooowly.

Trying to develop some element of humility and "late onset emotional intelligence." Life has a powerful way of teaching humility and how to understand what others are going through. Theme of our 20th reunion was seeking out and explicitly apologizing to 5 of our fellow classmates who I remember being particularly a jerk to. 4 had no idea what I was talking about. 1 searched me out and gave me a well-deserved ration of grief before I even had a chance to apologize. At the end, this individual said, "But don't think that I've been obsessing over this for the past 20 years." Right.
School Story:

Pre-Proposition 13 Redwood HS was pretty incredible. Remember when they taught Japanese, Italian, German, Spanish, and French?!?

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Reed Michael Benet
Reed Michael Benet has left an In Memory comment for his Profile.
Mar
28
Mar 28, 2025 at 4:47 AM

Thanks for posting, Steve. And condolences to you, Susan, and Steve these fine gents' so good friend. This is a GREAT picture! Makes one think about how sweet life and also how painful loss in the face of it can be. Reed M. Benet reed@herohomes.com

Reed Michael Benet
Reed Michael Benet updated his profile. View.
Dec
07
Dec 07, 2024 at 6:51 AM
Reed Michael Benet
Reed Michael Benet has left an In Memory comment for Agnes Goldstein German/Spanish.
Oct
21
Oct 21, 2024 at 9:40 AM

I both loved and feel bad about how we used to harrass Frau Goldstein. I'll never forget her reminiscing about her beloved deceased husband and how he used to call her makeup War Paint. Ah how cruel and inconsiderate children can be. I hope to be a much better person than that every reminaing day.

Reed Michael Benet
Reed Michael Benet has left an In Memory comment for Patrick Bacchus English.
Oct 21, 2024 at 9:35 AM

Mr. Bacchus gave me the greatest gift and because most people are functionally illiterate the greatest damage by teaching me the 11 rules of using a comma. My secret of great writing is to use all of these in every thing I write. What a wonderful teacher. So sad that he passed. How I wish I could have known him as an adult!

Reed Michael Benet
Reed Michael Benet has left an In Memory comment for Tad Baugh German.
Oct 21, 2024 at 9:32 AM

I too am very sad that Herr Baugh has passed. Pre-Prop 13 Redwood was quite a spectacular place where not only could you learn German with him but also with him and others French, Russian, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, etc.

For some reason I can remember more fellow students in his class than all my other classes combined: Niedermeyer (our resident would-be Nazi), Peter Brockman, and Mike Lasky (with whom Herr Baugh called me and him "Heckle and Jeckyl").

Perhaps I remember because it was so fun and unusual to be in Herr Baugh's class.

My favorite Redwood story is that when we came back from a Spring Break, one of the above smart asses asked him: "So, Herr Baugh, how many homosexual encounters did you have this Spring Break?"

Always one with the best come-backs, and instead of losing control and respect of the class by quite rightly sending such smart ass off to the Principal's office, Herr Baugh looked at us, rolled his eyes back and his head, and said: "More than I can count."

Completely appalled and undone, I don't remember any of us materially messing with him again.