master craftsman nick benson. michelle miller has story of unique american family. >> with a mall lot and chisel the slowest writer in newport rhode island, averages just two letters an hour. even when nick benson breaks out his power tools, he's not much faster. but for some stone carvers it's not about speed it's about stapping the test of lime. >> you get into a runner's high with it, where it becomes this out of body experience. at the same time it's really cerebral. >> you can see his work across our country from headstones to war monuments to presidential memorials. >> it's so who i am that it runs the gamut. i love it. i hate it, it drives me crazy. it is all. it's everything. >> his craft is among most ancient known to man. so perhaps it's fitting that the johns stevens shop where he works dates back to 1705. tucked away on this quiet street for the last 310 years it has changed ownership only once, in the 1920s when nick's grandfather bought it from the stevens family. who is that guy? >> that's my grandf

even when nick benson breaks out his power tools, he's not much faster. but for se stone carvers it't' not about speed, it's about stapping the test of lime. >> you get into a runner's high with it, where it becomes this out of body experiencnc cerebral. our country from headstones to war monuments to presidential memorials. >> it's so who i am that it runs the gamut. i love it. i hate it, it drives me crazy. it'sverything. >> his craft is among most ancient known to man. so perhaps it's fitting that the johns stevens shop where he works dates back to 1;05. tucked away on this quiet street for the last 310 years, it has changed ownership only once, in the 1920s when nick's grandfather bought it from the stevens family. who is that guy? >> that's my grandfather. all the time i'm working he's lookong down on me to make sure i get it right. >> do you always gett it r rht? >> no. not always. >> to ensure that nick gets it right, he begins each job with calligraphy designing the letters free manned on brown butcher paper. >>>>nd this is really the way the roma

. >> reporter: john benson is nick's father and mentor.tired. >> they're all crazy, these romans. >> reporter: but in his day, he was a superstar. his work can be found everywhere, from rockefeller plaza in new york city, to the national gallery of art in washington, d.c. >> there's a tremendous, emotional appeal about a carved letter. it partakes of the substance of the building. >> reporter: famed architect ian pae commissioned benson to work on the museum of fine arts, boston. they didn't always see eye to eye. >> i can remember arguing about where lettering would go. he wanted it in one place, i moved it. then he wanted to move it again and i dug my heels in. >> reporter: who won? >> i turned to him and i said at the end of it when i knew he wasn't going to budge, i said well, it's your building. he said, yes, it is. >> reporter: perhaps his best known work is the john f. kennedy grave site at arlington national cemetery. he recalled the importance of it in the 1979 documentary "final marks." >> this was the biggest job. of lettering o

. >> reporter: john benson is nick's father and mentor. at 75, he's now retired. >> they're all crazy, these romans. >> reporter: but in his day, he his work can be found everywhere, from rockefeller plaza in new york city, to the national gallery of art in washington, d.c. >> there's a tremendous, emotional appeal about a carved letter. it partakes of the substance of the building. >> reporter: famed architect ian pae commissioned benson to work on the museum of fine arts, boston. they didn't always see eye to eye. >> i can remember arguing about where lettering would go. he wanted it in one place, i moved it. then he wanted to move it again and i dug my heels in. >> reporter: who won? >> i turned to him and i said at the end of it when i knew he wasn't going to budge, i said well, it's your building. he said, yes, it is. >> reporter: perhaps his best known work is the john f. kennedy grave site at arlington national cemetery. he recalled the importance of it in the 1979 documentary "final marks." >> this was the biggest job. of lettering