Ben Ehlers, retired Suffolk police officer and race car enthusiast, dies at 83

Two nicknames defined Ben Ehlers’ life emerging from a not-so-plentiful childhood: "Benny the cop" and "Cobra Ben."

As a Suffolk police officer, he made three attempts to enter the fully engulfed bedroom of three boys, ages 1, 2, and 3, while their mother screamed outside. The boys died in the 1971 electrical fire, and from then on, his family said, he would turn off the power in his children’s bedrooms when they went to sleep.

As a fast car lover, he spent years building a Shelby Cobra from a car kit, replacing its Ford engine with a Chevy one, almost sacrilegious to some but modifying cars was his long time passion, those who knew him said. Before it was finished, he was driving it, using a milk crate as a seat, a friend said.

Ehlers, who retired as a patrolman in 1997 and sold his silver-striped black Cobra three years ago, died of cancer July 17. The Holbrook resident was 83.

"He knew what he wanted," said his daughter, Maryann Almes, of Oakdale. "He use to say ‘My father used to say as long as you have these two things’ — he showed me his hands — ‘you’ll never be poor.’ "

The fifth of seven children, Ben was a "harbor rat" growing up by Seaford’s waterfront, his daughter said. If house repairs were needed or he wanted something, he often had to take care of it, learning from every high school shop class available, she said. The teenager wanted to sail, so he built a boat from scratch, heating up the wood strips to bend them into shape, she said.

Right after graduation, Ehlers joined the Navy in 1961 and ended up in the Cuban missile crisis the following year. He was a machinist on the USS Hammerberg, a destroyer escort, when it patrolled waters off Florida.

It was a tense time. He wanted to return to marry the quiet, classy girl across the street, Annamae Ell, who had once considered him a "show off," saying "who would want him?" their daughter recalled.

The two wed in 1963, shortly after his Navy discharge. The couple later bought a model home from a new development in Holbrook and moved it to a woody lot away from Sunrise Highway. Ehlers secured the house to the foundation and did all the plumbing and electrical work, his daughter said.

He was working three jobs as a mechanic when his wife convinced him to take the Suffolk police test, his family said.

His employment in 1966 launched a career in the Third and Fifth precincts, half that time in Oakdale.

"He was just solid guy who was light hearted," said Jim Watters, one of Ehlers’ rookie trainees. "He made you feel comfortable. He worked the same area for so long, the presence of somebody that they know, a familiar face, definitely calmed things. He was Benny the cop of Oakdale."

Full of funny and sad stories, Ehlers once told his family "I almost shot myself." That was when he entered a house for a call about an intruder and, noticing something moving, he swung around — he was looking at himself in a mirror, his daughter recalled. Another time, according to news articles, he was commended for chasing down a burglary suspect who reportedly confessed to 35 burglaries.

"He loved the action, the adventure, the sense of helping people." Almes said.

But his longest running passion was cars. To help to support his family, Ben was already fixing them at a gas station at age 15, those who knew him said.

He drag raced from his teen years on, going to Long Island’s racing tracks, sometimes winning because of his expert timing and knowledge of his car’s limits, said his car buddy, Jim Comiskey. He built, modified, raced and owned many cars, from a Thunderbird to his orange Corvette, family and friends said.

"He likes tinkering and working every car he had," Comiskey said. "He’s always doing something, like make it faster or make it look better."

Besides his daughter, he is survived by son Jim Ehlers, of Oakdale, and sisters Anna Guarriello, of Southold, and Cathy Murray, of Las Vegas, Nevada. His wife, Annamae, died in 2020.

A chapel service was July 24 at the West Sayville Funeral Home, followed by burial at Pinelawn Memorial Park in Farmingdale.