Benjamin Hubbard Atwood Anderson

Our beloved Benjamin Hubbard Atwood Anderson died May 11, 2024, from injuries sustained during a motorcycle accident that occurred May 5, 2024, in Missoula, Montana.

Ben’s death created opportunities to save the lives of four people who will receive his fiercely loving heart, his liver, and his kidneys. Ben’s family hopes the mothers of these recipients had their prayers answered this Mother’s Day.

Every day with Ben in it has been better than any day before he came into our lives.

Ben was born Sept. 19, 2003, in Overland Park, Kansas, to his first mother, Rozella Jones, who made the agonizing decision to place him for adoption with Eden Atwood and Bruce Anderson of Missoula. The best day of our lives was not the best day of Rozella’s life. Or Ben’s. Adoption is many things: love and sorrow, joy and suffering. All are present in equal measure, much as they were in Ben’s life.

Benny loved cars and motorized vehicles of all kinds. He was proud that his first word was “Honda.” He even said it in baby talk that sounded distinctly like the proper Japanese pronunciation — one of the many legends of the boy his mother called Ben-Ben.

There were many others. There was the pulling of the fire alarm during a New Year’s Eve concert at the Missoula Art Museum. Getting stuck in the Florence building elevator. Cutting his forehead on the craggy steps of Sacré-Cœur in Paris, which required that he wear band-aids (SpongeBob and bacon were his favorite styles) for a full year to avoid a scar on his unimaginably beautiful face.

Ben was a pro-scooter wizard who became a local legend for electrifying flips and high-flying stunts honed over hours and hours at the skate park with his father watching over him. 

More than anything, Ben was known for his deep care and compassion for people who felt alone. As a black child, adopted by white parents, growing up in Missoula, where he could count his black friends on one hand, Ben understood loneliness. 

The people who really “got” Ben loved him deeply. And we count ourselves the lucky ones. As he came into his young adulthood, his friendship group grew, and during the last week of his life there were at least 20 young adults at any given time sitting vigil in the hospital. Every single day. Ben’s legacy lives in the hearts of the many friends and family who loved him so dearly.

When Ben was wheeled down the hospital corridor for the Honor Walk accorded to organ donors, we were told it was one of the largest gatherings St. Patrick hospital staff had seen in a very long time. 

Ben is preceded in death by his brothers Jamel Jones and Julian James Chaffers; father Barry Nelson Jr.; grandmothers Lori Anderson, Helen “Gus” Atwood, and Willie Mae Jones; grandfathers Vernon Jones Sr., Richard Anderson, and Hubbard Atwood; aunts Linda Jones and Deborah Williams; and uncle Nathan Jones.

Ben is survived by his mothers Rozella Jones and Eden Atwood, father Bruce Anderson, stepmother Catie Anderson, and stepfather Brad Tyer; grandmother Francine Nelson and grandfather Barry Nelson Sr.; aunts Brenda Butler, Susan Anderson, Kristin Anderson, and Kitty Atwood; uncles Vernon Jones Jr., Gary Jones, Willie Ray Jones, Ricky Jones, Jim Atwood, and Stephen Nelson; and siblings Jamaica Nelson, Ridge Hurla, Courtney Chaffers, Noreaú Murray, Riley Turnbow, Robert Turnbow, and Hannah Dawson.

A celebration of Ben’s life will be announced at a later date.