Sam & Dena Lombardo/Benecon Endowed Scholarship

By Martin D. Emeno, Jr.

Sam Lombardo never caddied, yet he epitomizes everything the J. Wood Platt Caddie Scholarship Trust embodies.

Passion. Tenacity. Positive disruption (All Sam’s words).

Lombardo grew up in the family restaurant business (father and uncles owned places). A few life twists and career turns later, he opened his own insurance agency and was disappointed at how providers implemented their rates on small business clients. In 1991, Lombardo developed and pioneered the concept of aggregating self-funded healthcare purchasing to allow companies to save money and gain control. He launched the concept with four Pennsylvania municipalities. Lombardo’s Benecon was born. Through his leadership, Benecon, is and remains, the premier self-funding solution for public and private sectors.

Lombardo is the Chairman Emeritus of Benecon, as well as its sister company ConnectCare3, after selling a majority stake in 2020. When Lombardo stepped aside from his full-time job, Benecon was in 39 states with 850 insurance brokers and $3 billion of gross premiums.

Lombardo and wife Dena’s philanthropic legacy is extensive.

And it extends to the Platt Caddie Scholarship courtesy of some firsthand knowledge.

Sam served on the J. Wood Platt Board of Trustees from 2014-16. He witnessed the difference Platt makes within the community.

The Sam & Dena Lombardo/Benecon Endowed Scholarship (established in 2017) is presented to a caddie from Bent Creek Country Club, Lancaster Country Club or Stonewall.

“I see in caddies similarities to how I started,” said Lombardo, who is a member at Lancaster and Stonewall. “They are young, energetic kids who love the game of golf. And they are caddying for successful people from all walks of life who don’t mind helping them. [Successful people] love to share their knowledge to help young people in their quest. It’s such a worthy cause. And I saw, from my exposure on the board, how great an organization it is.”

During Lombardo’s board tenure, he spearheaded efforts to expand Platt knowledge and donations at Lancaster and neighboring Bent Creek.

The Lombardos list of philanthropic causes includes Millersville University; The Samuel N. Lombardo Foundation; Franklin & Marshall College; Lancaster Cleft Palate Clinic; Clinic for Special Children in Strasburg, Pa.; Schreiber Center for Pediatric Development in Lancaster County; The Mix at Arbor Place in Downtown Lancaster; United Disabilities Services, a disability services and support organization in Lancaster County; Veterans Honor Park of Lancaster County and the National Healthy Veterans Center at the 340-acre Valor Farm in Lynchburg, Va.

Lombardo had more of a familiarity with golf than a relationship. That was until 1993.

One of Lombardo’s more visible clients at his Federal Kemper agency was Betty Moran. She was a prominent Thoroughbred horse owner and breeder who lived in Malvern, Pa.

Her friend Jack May was opening a new club called Stonewall.

“She said, ‘Sam, you’re a golfer, aren’t you?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I am.’ She goes you should join Stonewall. I didn’t know anything about it. But I thought, well, if Betty’s recommending it, I’m probably going to join. So the initiation fee was $35,000. I didn’t have that kind of money at the time,” said Lombardo. “So I sold my car and then I came up with the rest of the money to get in. I can remember Jack May calling me and welcoming me. I was thinking I’m kind of a shoe shine boy for you guys. I didn’t say that, but that’s what I was thinking.”

Golf had entered the equation.

Lombardo’s beginnings are humble.

His father and uncles both owned Italian restaurants. Soon after graduating McCaskey High School, the United States Army came calling. He was drafted into service. Lombardo served two years, including a 12-month stint in the Vietnam War.

“That really changed my life,” said Lombardo. “It gave me so much more discipline and taught me that there were limits to what I could do and discipline I had to follow. It showed me how I had to fit into a bigger picture.”

Upon returning to the States, he got married and had a child. 

Looking to support a family, he landed as a debt agent at Metropolitan Life Insurance. He worked there almost eight years before Federal Kemper gave him an opportunity to open his own agency.

“I started from scratch there in 1977 and built a successful little property and casualty company. I had one client that had 25 employees. It was a municipality and they had health insurance with me,” said Lombardo. “When I would get the renewal every year from the insurance provider, I would be dismayed and bewildered by how they promulgated the rate for it. It didn’t seem appropriate according to what the claims information I had was.”

And so Benecon was born.

Celebrating Amateur Golf since 1897, GAP, also known as the Golf Association of Philadelphia, is the oldest regional or state golf association in the United States. It serves as the principal ruling body of amateur golf in its region. The Association’s 288 Member Clubs and 75,000 individual members are spread across the Eastern half of Pennsylvania and parts of New Jersey and Delaware. The GAP’s mission is to promote, preserve and protect the game of golf.

The J. Wood Platt Caddie Scholarship Trust was created in 1958 and is the charitable arm of GAP (Golf Association of Philadelphia). The J. Wood Platt Caddie Scholarship Trust’s mission is to financially aid and empower qualified caddies and those working in golf operations in the pursuit of higher education. Along with aiding caddies financially, J. Wood Platt’s EMPOWER program strengthens scholarship investment dollars by providing caddies with exceptional benefits and leadership training through access to the wide network of J. Wood Platt donors and alumni. To date, more than 3,700 young men and women have received $25 million in aid from the Trust.