‘A bulldog with a smile’ : Leslie Bensley, Morris County’s number one cheerleader, retiring from Tourism Bureau she created

 

Morris County’s cheerleader is retiring her pom-poms.

Leslie Bensley, who has devoted nearly a quarter-century to branding Morris as a tourist destination, is stepping down this month as executive director of the Morris Tourism Bureau she created.

“I profoundly enjoyed it. It wasn’t time ill-spent. It’s not brain surgery. But it’s also not trivial,” said Bensley, who will be honored by the Morris County Commissioners with one last Huzzah! on Dec. 8, 2021.

The numbers are far from trivial. Pre-pandemic, the county averaged 6.5 million annual visitors, generating $2.4 billion in consumer spending, according to the New Jersey Division of Travel and Tourism.

“She’s put Morris County on the map,” said former Morris Commissioner Frank Druetzler, who was instrumental in hiring Bensley in 1997.

“No person has brought as much passion and enthusiasm for all things Morris County as Leslie,” said Allison Larena, CEO of the Mayo Performing Arts Center.

“Her contributions will live on for all time,” added county Administrator John Bonanni. Following Leslie Bensley, he said, would be like trying to follow Hall of Famers Mariano Rivera on the mound or Mickey Mantle in center field.

Bensley grew a shoestring operation into a member-supported, grant-funded nonprofit with a $500,000 budget and a small staff of history-loving women.

The Morris Township resident put “heritage tourism” on the lips of local officials, and made Greater Morristown a must-see stop for Revolutionary War buffs — even though no battle ever was fought here. Washington’s soldiers spent two winters shivering, not shooting.

Never shy about donning Colonial garb when necessary–she once was an actress–Bensley launched Revolutionary Times Weekends, and brought National Park Service Rangers to the Morristown Green for July Fourth readings of the Declaration of Independence.

She also brought a sense of fun. When the Super Bowl came to New Jersey, she had giant sand sculptures of Washington with a football erected in Morristown.  And she was not afraid to push obvious things which, it turns out, were not so obvious. Like walking tours, tourism kiosks and “wayfinding.”

That’s a fancy name for destination signs. Bensley invested heavily in them.

“In hindsight, you can see she was right,” said Jeff Vasser, executive director of the state tourism division.

“Now, people are looking at wayfinding, and realizing it’s not enough just to get tourists. You have to take care of them when they get there…You want them to have the best experience they can have, so people walk away saying, ‘I got there, it was an easy destination to navigate, I could find what I was looking for,'” Vasser said.

Bensley’s efforts have been recognized with the state’s Pinnacle of Excellence Award. Vasser credits her success to charm and persistence.

“Everything she does is with a smile on her face. You can’t help but like her. But she’s a bulldog. When she gets her teeth into you, she will continue to drive home the importance of what she feels is the best thing for her county,” Vasser said.

Dillard Kirby, former president of the F.M. Kirby Foundation, found he was no match for Bensley’s persuasive powers when she pitched projects.

“She did it not by arm-twisting, but rather, by her energy,” Kirby said. “It’s contagious, and her smile makes you want to smile.”

EMERGING FROM THE BASEMENT

Congress established Morristown as America’s first National Historical Park in 1933, and a booth on the Morristown Green welcomed visitors.

By the mid-1990s, though, only the most intrepid tourists could find the Historic Morris Visitors Center, buried in an Elm Street basement. Volunteers did their best, but times were tough and area businesses were pressing county officials for more help drumming up customers, Druetzler said.

“We had hotels saying we need business on weekends, for sure, and we had to do something to improve the economic climate,” he recounted.

Druetzler suggested moving the visitors center to a county-owned house at 6 Court St., near the Morris County Courthouse. Quentin Schlieder, then director of the county park commission, recommended someone to run it.

Leslie Bensley was settling into Morris Township after a dozen years in Brussels, London and Tokyo. She became active in the Morris School District, where her son and daughter attended elementary schools. Alice Cutler of the Junior League of Morristown introduced Bensley to her social circle.

The county commissioners (then known as freeholders) gave Bensley the keys to the center in 1997.

“I think they saw in me someone who was optimistic, who was known to be ebullient. That’s what the job called for,” Bensley said.

“They were not looking for an MBA in economics. They were looking for someone who could coalesce people around goals that they considered worthwhile.”

She also possessed a keen sense of history and historic preservation. Bensley grew up in Savannah, Ga., where her father sold and restored historic homes.

And she had fundraising skills, honed while working abroad for the late Ian Ratiu, a prominent Romanian-in-exile before the fall of communism.

“He gave me the opportunity to really see philanthropy at work, and also, political activism. A huge Romanian diaspora rallied to his cause,” Bensley said.

With a break or two, her career might have followed a very different path. The acting bug bit her in Savannah, and she studied in the late ’70s at New York’s famed HB Studio –alumni include Matthew Broderick, Al Pacino and Sigourney Weaver–before heading to NYU.

Those were heady times. The Yankees returned to the World Series. A blackout darkened the city. Riots wrenched the Bronx. Bensley shared a Soho loft with her brother Sam, a gay man who later died from AIDS.

Notable credits included the groundbreaking TV series Roots; Bensley played the daughter of Lorne Greene’s character.

She had a small role (Genevieve) in Bernice Bobs Her Hair, a coming-of-age story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Part of an anthology narrated by Henry Fonda, the film starred Shelly Duvall, with Bud Cort (Harold and Maude), Veronica Cartwright (Lost in Space) and Dennis Christopher (Breaking Away).

Bensley also appeared as a farm girl in The Greatest Gift, a pilot episode starring Glenn Ford and Julie Harris.

Decades later, Bensley made a comeback, in a role she was born to play: Tourism Director Laurel Grove, in the 2010 comedy The Legend of Lake Pocahontas. Bensley threw herself into the project with gusto, and the picture made a splash at the Morristown Green Film Festival.

She had come full circle.

Screen comeback: ‘The Legend of Lake Pocahontas’:

 

‘CONNECTING THE DOTS’

Bensley’s dream job wasn’t so dreamy at the start.

The visitors center gig paid $12,000…but only had $10,000 in its account. The center’s trustees delivered some tough love.

“The board took the unenviable position of telling Leslie that if she wanted to get paid, she would have to raise the money herself,” said Frank Alai, who served on that board. “This was a horrible way to treat our executive director. She did that and so much more.”

Another trustee from those days, former county information director Joe Garifo, likened Bensley to the Energizer Bunny.

“I had never met a person with a more positive attitude…Leslie’s enthusiasm knew no bounds,” Garifo said.

Bensley wanted to promote the county’s historic treasures, similar to Savannah. But she insisted on doing more.

“She said it was essential for visitors to know and enjoy the many other amenities the county had to offer. She forged partnerships with cultural and recreational sites, hotels, restaurants and business establishments, and made them key components of promoting Morris County as a tourist destination,” Garifo said.

Bensley found an ally in David Grant, then the CEO of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. Money from Dodge and the county commissioners kept the visitors center afloat in the early years, she said.

A turning point came in 2003. The center became the Morris Tourism Bureau.  Designated as the county’s “destination marketing organization,” it now could receive state tourism grants. Bensley could focus more attention on her passion.

To promote a Revolutionary War destination with no war stories, she read histories by the late John Cunningham  (The Uncertain Revolution), and worked out a narrative:

“Why aren’t we speaking with a British accent? Because George Washington survived here,” through the worst winter of the Revolution, she explained.

“I’m just connecting the dots, based on the research, to make it come alive.”

Carol Anton and Carol Barkin have helped Bensley connect those dots for most of her tenure. They are like family.

Anton met Bensley when their kids were 3rd graders on a class trip to Waterloo Village. Anton casually mentioned she was looking for a part-time job.

“Come work for me!” Bensley replied. Twenty-one years later, Anton still remembers reporting for duty.

“‘We’re moms. Kids come first,” Bensley assured her.

“She had me,” Anton said. “I would have emptied the trash if she wanted me to.”

It has been 17 years for Barkin.

“It’s the best part-time job you could ever have. We went from suburban moms to webmasters,” she said.

The Carols have helped Bensley organize holiday Holly Walks with area museums. Every other year, they produce a county tourism guide. (Bensley prides herself on designing the cover, Barkin said.)

For many years, the bureau teamed with preservationists to spotlight the county’s 10 “most endangered” historic sites.

Since turning to a membership model in 2008, the tourism bureau has enlisted 250 dues-paying members.

“During the pandemic, we had a singular focus: Helping members stay in business,” Barkin said, recounting e-blasts and Facebook Live promotions.

Bensley’s performance through the health crisis impressed Meghan Hunscher, president and CEO of the Morris County Chamber of Commerce and a tourism board member.

“The pandemic has been challenging for a lot of us in the nonprofit sector. It hit tourism hard, and she really held it together. It hasn’t been an easy two years,” said Hunscher. She hailed Bensley as a “tenacious…untiring champion” of Morris tourism.

The Chamber is exploring whether to absorb the tourism bureau under its umbrella, with the Chamber’s economic development division. The move would require approval by the bureau’s membership, Hunscher said.

Both organizations have similar goals, she said, and might benefit from synergies and efficiencies.

“The idea is to keep (Leslie’s) legacy intact, and keep the mission intact, and grow it,” Hunscher.

FACING THE FUTURE, AND THE PAST

For many, the pandemic has been a time for reflection. Bensley said she realized she’s ready for changes.

“Now is the time. It feels absolutely right. I have no second thoughts. I just know,” she said.

Nearing retirement age, she looks forward to becoming a tourist again. She plans to visit England, where her son, Sam, works for a grocery chain and oversees his charity, The Nicaraguan Project. Her daughter Eliza, a kidney transplant coordinator, just made Bensley a grandmother for the first time, and little Graham is due for some spoiling.

Bensley and her husband Charlie, a bond trader she met on a blind date when they were college students in 1981, are studying Spanish for adventures in Mexico. (Charlie is steeped in local history, too; he was raised in the gardener’s house of a Gilded Age estate in Morris Township.)

Local garden clubs, the gym, and the book group at the Kellogg Club also should be seeing more of Bensley.

She knows hard challenges lay ahead for Morris tourism. Coaxing visitors to return after the pandemic won’t be easy.

Morris County gave birth to the electronic era with the 19th-century invention of the telegraph. Bensley ushered the tourism bureau into the digital age with its first website, and mobile apps for walking tours. It’s time for fresh blood, she said.

“You need digital natives to really reach people where they are,”  Bensley said. “We’re all vying for every second of your attention, so you have to keep re-inventing yourself, and your message, and being disruptive.”

Going forward, Bensley said, that message must be delivered through a critical lens. Recognizing our ancestors’ flaws along with their virtues is crucial to comprehending our past, and charting our future.

“Rather than look away, I say we look even more deeply at our icons. Truth telling is important,” said Bensley, who just finished reading Nathaniel Philbrick’s Mayflower, A Story of Courage, Community, and War.

Back in Savannah, Bensley was bused to a Black high school. It had two homecoming queens–one Black, one white. She was the white one.

Slave-owning by the Founding Fathers must be reckoned with, she acknowledged.

“I believe we are mature enough to realize these icons were all human beings, filled with portions of good, and portions of not-so-good,” Bensley said.

“We must expand our view of how we tell the story. It will take more work. But we must be honest about how we tell our story. That’s what democracy allows us to do.”