VISITORS DAY

Always having a passion for history, Ben Justman graduated from Central College in Pella, IA for his BA in History and obtained his MA in History from Western Illinois University. He has served as the Executive Director of the Sarpy County Museum since 2010 and has worked to relocate and restore a Union Pacific train caboose, coordinated the local display of a Smithsonian Institution exhibit on the history of jobs in America, given dozens of lectures, including on his research on Sarpy County’s military veterans and provided history tours to area schoolchildren.  A published author, Ben has written on a number of topics including Offutt Air Force Base and Bellevue. He also teaches history at Iowa Western Community College. 

His prior experience involved working with local history museums as well as Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry and the Churchill Museum, a branch of the Imperial War Museum in London. More recently, Ben was named the 2018 Person of the Year by the Bellevue Leader and served as the Grand Marshal in the 2022 Arrows to Aerospace Parade. He lives in Papillion with his wife, Jeannette and their yellow lab, Barley.