Toby Bengston

Funeral service for Harold Nels "Toby" Bengston will be 11:00 a.m. Monday, February 14, 2022, at the First Christian Church of Chelsea. Burial will follow at Chelsea Cemetery. Visitation will be 1-6 p.m. on Sunday, February 13, at Chelsea Funeral Home and Cremation Service, with family greeting friends from 4-6 p.m. Toby passed away at his home in Chelsea on Monday, February 7, 2022. He was 78 years old.
The son of Harold Otto Lorraine Bengston and Georgia Gwendolyn (Brown) Bengston was born March 31, 1943, in Newton, KS. When he was ten years old, his father's employer, Shell Pipeline, relocated the family to Chelsea. Toby's mother always told the story of him coming home from his first day at his new school. He told his parents that he had met the girl he was going to marry, Myrna McSpadden. His parents thought it was just puppy love, but as the years went on, their love for each other continued to grow. They were wed on May 22, 1964, Myrna's birthday. This was so that Toby wouldn't forget her birthday or their anniversary, he always joked.
After graduating with teaching degrees from NSU, they both began their teaching careers in Kansas, while waiting for an opening in their hometown of Chelsea. When those openings presented themselves, Chelsea became their forever home. Although they had no children of their own, they taught and mentored hundreds, and Toby became a substitute father figure in many children's lives. He was known as Coach Bengston, Coach B, or Mr. Bengston. At some point, every student in Chelsea was touched in a good way by Toby. He was a coach, school bus driver, teacher, and a counselor for so many young people. He mastered woodworking (The Wood B's), was an Amway distributor, where he grew close with the LORD, a master meat smoker, a restauranteur, a buffet's worst nightmare, a cattleman, a deer farmer, a wonderful brother, an amazing uncle, and a great friend to all who knew him.
He was diagnosed with AML in October of 2021. He lost his heartbreaking journey with leukemia on February 7, 2022. Toby has left a living legacy of honesty, integrity, hard work, and love. We cherish our memories of this great man and know that he will be missed by all. We celebrate the life he shared with us here on earth, as we also celebrate his new life in Heaven. He is once again reunited with the love of his life, Myrna, and the loved ones who have gone on before him.
Toby was preceded in death by his parents, Chuck and Georgia Bengston, and his wife, Myrna McSpadden Bengston.
Survivors include his sisters, Stephanie Wilson and husband Jim, and Debbie Addis; brothers-in-law Larry McSpadden and wife Cherry, Pat McSpadden and wife Ann, and Eugene McSpadden and wife Joy; nieces and nephews Tiffany Malocsay, Justin Malocsay, Meghan Malocsay, Michelle and Devon Kelley, Derek and Terese McSpadden, Rich and Eva McSpadden, Davie and Chrystal McSpadden, Thomas McSpadden, Luke McSpadden, Caitlyn and Dustin Deville, Shannon Poe, David and Jen Poe, and Susan and Gavin Fluke.
Special thanks to Good Shepherd Hospice for their compassionate care, and also to Greg Hayworth, Butch McGrew, and Eva McSpadden.