October 20, 1936 – December 20, 2023 Whitewater, WI – Brian Kevin Beck (James Peter Beck) passed away on December 20, 2023 after a brief stay at Rainbow Hospice. He was born October 20th, 1936 in Appleton, Wisconsin to Warren and Carmen (Haberman) Beck. His childhood years were spent in Appleton and Ripton, Vermont (1948-1954 Bread Loaf Campus) where his father was an English professor while writing numerous books. He graduated from Lawrence University in Appleton with a B. A. after serving in the Army from 1959-1963. He earned his Masters from Columbia University and his Ph. D from University of Wisconsin. He was an English Professor at UW- Whitewater from 1966 till he retired in 1994 and continued to be involved with UW – Whitewater activities throughout his life. He sought to make better students by aiding their communication and helping them to think on their own. “For me, “true education= not What to “know-believe-do,” but HOW to think things through. An overlooked paradigm; an invisible elephant in the room.”
Brian owned 3 different sail boats and spent several summers sailing the Great Lakes and writing articles for sailing magazines (Canadian Yachting, Outdoors, Sail, etc….). In addition to the 150+ published articles, he self-published 7 books, and wrote many “how-to-do-it” articles for teachers and others as well as poetry, humor, cartoons, and satires. Brian’s work and his everyday life reflected his unique personality and sense of humor. Chester, his Potato-head character is well known and can be seen in local places as well as places he traveled. “Travel not for pleasure, but for significance.” EUROPE: France, England, Germany, Spain, Italy. AFRICA: Egypt, Morocco. SOUTH AMERICA: Brazil-Paraguay-Chile-Bolivia-Peru-Ecuador. ASIA: India; Thailand; Burma; Indonesia; Philippines; China; Japan. He thoroughly enjoyed photography and has many slides from his travels. The natural world was also a love of his and he could be seen biking throughout the area while collecting vegetation for his visual art projects. He created numerous creative displays while living at Fairhaven. Brian stated the four greatest experiences in his life: My “work,” so-called work but really an Everest adventure of the intellect I was blessed to be called to pursue; My friendship with Robert Flegl; The psychotherapeutic odyssey with J. Hadley M.D. “soul-mother”; Travel: on sea, on land- and by velo: “the bicycle wheel as the stylus hearing the music of the 33-rpm record of the path-trail-road.”
He donated his body to the Medical College of Wisconsin…the research continues. Brian is survived by his cousins, Susan Church Pitzner and children, Barb, Cyndi and David and cousin Bobby Haberman and son Jeff from Jefferson, and friends in many places. He was preceded in departure by his friend Amy K. Peterson in 1984 and Robert Flegl in 2003. A Memorial Service will be held at Fairhaven on Thursday, January 4th at 1:00 p.m., with a small reception to follow.
