Exeter, NH – Benjamin Blieden Platt, 91, died peacefully September 5, 2026, with his family by his side, in Exeter, New Hampshire.
Ben was born in Philadelphia, son of Joseph and Hilda Platt, on October 18, 1934. His grandparents were immigrants from Russia and Lithuania. Ben attended the University of Pennsylvania (BS), New York University (MBA), and Hahnemann Medical College (MD). He shared 63 years with his beloved wife Ellen Spector Platt, whom he married in 1956 and who predeceased him in 2020.
Ben was a veteran of the Vietnam War, a surgeon in the U.S. Army 101st Airborne. After his military service, he dedicated decades of his life to healing and advocacy as an internal medicine physician in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. He created and was medical director of a kidney dialysis center. Ben became one of the first board-certified gerontologists and spent many years working in nursing homes, federal prison, and veterans’ medical care. He was particularly proud to offer caring treatment during the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
His family will remember his joyful life outside his profession. A lifelong music lover, he helped create and played timpani in the Schuylkill Symphony Orchestra, and sang bass with a choir at Carnegie Hall. Ben was an avid scuba diver and underwater photographer. He spoke fluent French from his many travels across France with Ellen. And he possessed an uncanny “champion eyeball” that could find any lost item. Ben loved baking bread, including his signature challah which he brought to Thanksgiving every year, and was a joyful connoisseur of chocolate, espresso, oysters, and smoked fish.
Ben was the kind of person who made friends wherever he went. Above all his greatest joy was gathering his family around a full table. In 2014 he and Ellen moved to Exeter to live closer to their family.
He is survived by his much younger sister Saretta Platt Berlin, and his three children, David Platt with spouse Linda in Ipswich, Massachusetts; Michael Platt of Easton, New Hampshire; Jenny Platt Hopkins with spouse Mark in Canterbury, New Hampshire; and the grandchildren and great-grandchildren he loved.
Ben was a big believer in education, and supported his family through many of their endeavors and college degrees. In the spirit of lifelong education, memorial gifts may be made to the ACLU or to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. The family will hold a private celebration of Ben’s life later in October.
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