Adolph “Ace” Benet (pronounced Bennett) was born in 1910 in Hungary and immigrated in 1921. He quit school while in the seventh grade in order to work in one of his father's bakeries. When he turned sixteen, he went to work at the Interstate Hosiery Mill in Bloomfield, New Jersey, and joined Branch 11 of the American Federation of Hosiery Workers (AFHW) that same year. He was elected steward, vice president, and, in 1934, president of Branch 11. In 1938 he became district manager of the AFHW district council that served New York, New Jersey, and New England. In 1940 he was put on the AFHW staff. He served in the Army during World War II and returned to the Federation staff in January 1946. In 1950 he was made the AFHW's Deep South director; and in 1957, after being elected first vice president of the Federation, he added the duties of Upper South director. In 1963 he ran for the presidency of the AFHW and defeated the incumbent by a two to one margin. He ran on a platform of merger with the Textile Workers Union of America (TWUA) and of organizing in the South. In 1965 he concluded a merger agreement with the TWUA. With the TWUA he served as director of the Hosiery Division and as a vice president until his retirement in 1970.
