His mother, Anne Kendrick Benedict, was a writer and a teacher and his maternal grandmother, a Professor of Greek, Latin and Sanskrit at the University of Rochester and was an editor of the King James Version of the Bible.

However, their marriage was strained by their inability to have children, Ruth's writing career and her secret love affair with her female friend and colleague Margaret Mead which led to a separation in 1930.

During World War I (1914-1918), Stanley had an accident and was gassed while working on a government project concerning poisonous gas which had a negative impact on his health.

Folin described in the Journal some methods on how to analyze qualitatively and quantitatively some elements in the urine such as urea, uric acid, ammonia, creatine, and creatinine.

[5] From 1910 to 1936, Benedict taught Biochemistry at the medical school of Cornell University while at the same time running the Journal of Biological Chemistry as an editor in chief.