“Bert was not a volunteer citizen of Missoula,” said Bob Brown, executive director of the Fort Missoula Historical Museum.
On Monday, 65 years after he was released from internment in 1943, the 96-year-old Benedetti was honored by the Missoula community for his contribution to the city over the past six decades. An internee research library was dedicated to him, and Oct. 13 was officially declared Umberto “Bert” Benedetti Day.
The new library is housed in the old Department of Justice Post Headquarters at the fort. It was from this building that the detention center was run. Upstairs was a courtroom where detainees were interrogated and a panel decided their fate - a panel that included Mike Mansfield, who went on to become a U.S. senator and ambassador to Japan.
The building is soon to be purchased from the U.S. Forest Service by the museum, said development director Diane Sands, and will be restored to what it looked like during the early 1940s.
In the time since Benedetti secured his release, he has become a well-known figure in the community. He has supported the University of Montana and the Historical Museum by donating all of his art, pictures and everything else he has had to give.
At the gathering honoring him on Monday, Benedetti told a story about a photograph he had of Franklin Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill. Then he realized, even as he spoke at Monday's gathering, that this was another thing he could give.
“Everything I will give to you,” Benedetti said in the thick Italian accent that he still carries.
Despite his capture and detention, Benedetti fell for Montana. He was on the cruise ship Il Conte Biancamano in the Panama Canal when he was detained and eventually brought to Fort Missoula.
Compared to other possible detention sites Benedetti said of Missoula, “It was one of the best places.”
The internees built a golf course at the fort, played soccer, fenced and got an American education.
He came to love the state and country so much that he fought for it in the Korean War.
In Korea, Benedetti said he told his Army buddies: “I am going back to Montana. I am going to marry a cowboy girl.”
Benedetti did return, and now intends to live out his life here. Many other Italian detainees left when given the chance, but Benedetti said it reminded him of home in Italy.
“... They went to Chicago, to New York, to the Italian communities there,” he said. “I like the climate. The climate is just like the climate at the place where I was born.”
To honor Benedetti, many prominent Montanans made sure to get a word in. Letters were read from U.S. Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester, along with one from Gov. Brian Schweitzer. County commissioners Jean Curtiss and Larry Anderson went up to the podium, along with Mayor John Engen, to declare the special day.
And University of Montana President George Dennison paid his respects to Benedetti for all his years of teaching, mentoring and donating to UM. Benedetti graduated from UM at the age of 68 with a degree in education.
“The time has come to pay our respects,” Dennison said to Benedetti, “in partial compensation for all you have done for us.”
The function also served as a birthday party for Benedetti. He turns 97 on Nov. 22.
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