John E. “Fud” Benson (1939–2024) was an American stone carver, calligrapher, and folk musician based in Newport, Rhode Island. He was best known as the proprietor of the historic John Stevens Shop, America’s oldest continuously operating business, which has been producing gravestones and monumental inscriptions since 1705.

Benson took over the shop from his father and, after studying sculpture at the Rhode Island School of Design with an honors project in Rome, returned to run the business in 1961. His inscriptions appear on major American monuments including the John F. Kennedy Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington D.C., and buildings for the National Gallery of Art and Dallas Museum of Art. In 1993 he turned over the shop to his son Nicholas, who received the National Heritage Fellowship in 2007.

Alongside his stone carving career, Benson was an accomplished folk musician and fiddler. He performed with The Reprobates, a folk-revival band whose album Whiskey Johnny featured his fiddle playing. In 1977, he contributed vocals and design to Steady as She Goes, a Smithsonian Folkways recording of sea songs and chanties alongside Louis Killen, Jeff Warner, and Gerret Warner.