[May 26, 2006]

Ex- Dean Dies At 72

(Hartford Courant, The (CT) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) May 26--Edgar F. Beckham, a longtime Wesleyan University dean known for his efforts to promote racial integration and understanding in the nation's schools and colleges, died Wednesday of complications from a stroke. He was 72.

Beckham joined Wesleyan's faculty as a German instructor in 1961 and spent most of the next three decades at the university, where he became dean of the college in 1973, the first African American to hold that post.

Later, as the head of a Ford Foundation effort to promote campus diversity and as senior fellow at the Association of American Colleges and Universities, he was a respected voice on issues of race and educational quality.

"Edgar's entire career, and certainly his career at Wesleyan ... was marked by a deep commitment to educational excellence and social justice," said former Wesleyan President Colin G. Campbell.

"He was widely admired by students, though needless to say, as dean of the college, he had his moments of confrontation," said Campbell, now president of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

At Wesleyan, Beckham tackled a number of tough issues, including racial tensions that arose as the student body became increasingly mixed.

"Edgar was masterful at talking students through the issues here," said Peter Patton, who as a young faculty member met Beckham nearly 30 years ago. Beckham's style with students was "face-to-face. He treated them as the adults they were," said Patton, now Wesleyan's vice president and secretary.

Beckham witnessed firsthand the integration of the private Wesleyan campus in Middletown, where he was one of the only black students in the early 1950s. Later, the university made aggressive efforts to attract racial minorities. Today, minority students account for about one-fourth of the student body.

"He was a man of great subtle understanding, particularly with respect to racial differences and racial controversy," said William M. Chace, former Wesleyan president. "He kept Wesleyan going through very, very tough times."

Beckham's views on racial issues began taking shape in Hartford, where he grew up in a housing project in the city's North End.

"My awareness of diversity and its power as an asset for the community really became conscious at Weaver High School," Beckham told The Courant in a 1992 interview. In 1951, the year he graduated from Weaver, the school was about "10 percent black, 30 percent Jewish and the rest a variety of white ethnic groups," he said. In the '60s and '70s, the student body at Weaver became increasingly poor and mostly black, and the school became a symbol of the racial isolation that was targeted in the Sheff vs. O'Neill school desegregation lawsuit filed in 1989.

When Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. appointed him chairman of the State Board of Education in 1992, Beckham was a key figure in the state's effort to tackle the issues raised by the Sheff case.

"We had frank and candid conversations," recalled John C. Brittain, a lawyer for the Sheff plaintiffs. "I always pictured him as an honest broker in this process. ... He was very studious, a very principled person."

Beckham, who lived in North Haven, was active in civic affairs, working on the boards of Middlesex Hospital, the Donna Wood Foundation and the Connecticut Humanities Council. He was a trustee to the Connecticut Housing Authority, Mount Holyoke College, Connecticut Public Broadcasting and the Association of International Educators.

He is survived by his wife, Ria, and other relatives. Wesleyan has scheduled a memorial service for 11 a.m. Tuesday.

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