Retired Sheriff Ben Johnson Oral History

Ben was born in 1950 at the former military hospital at the DeLand Naval Air Station. One of five sons, Ben grew up in DeLand and has many happy memories of playing with his brothers and friends in the great outdoors! During his youth television was limited, telephones were not portable, home was where you ate and slept, but outside was where you “lived” if you were as lucky as Ben to call DeLand your playground. Ben enjoyed bike riding, swimming, fishing, horseback riding, camping and exploring delightful and unique places such as the old gator pits on the Stetson Mansion property. Although the gators were gone by that time, the excitement of being able to think about those gators was great fun!

In this interview Ben tells us that he planned to be a lawyer after college, but when he went to work with the Sheriff’s Office to save money for law school, he realized that law enforcement was his destiny. Two of his uncles were FBI agents and perhaps influenced his decision. Ben also came from a political family, his dad served at different times as DeLand’s Mayor, City Manager and City Commissioner. With all that background it was no surprise that Ben proudly served the people of Volusia County in the Sheriff’s Office for forty-three years, the last sixteen as Sheriff!