Beck, Frank Orman

Born July 18, 1872 on a farm near Germantown (Wayne County, Indiana), Frank Orman Beck came to Indiana University as a student in 1890, receiving his A.B. in 1894 and A.M. in 1895 both in comparative literature. As an undergraduate he wrote a series of editorials in The Indiana Daily Student which were instrumental in the organization of the Arbutus yearbook which began in 1894. He was a charter member (1892) of the university’s chapter of Sigma Nu fraternity, and secretary for the YMCA.

While teaching part-time his senior year at Bloomington High School, he met then student Daisy Woodward– a native of Monroe County and direct descendent of Colonel John Ketcham, one of the original IU trustees. The two married on July 23, 1899 shortly after she received her A.B. degree from the University. That fall the two moved to Boston, where she attended the New England Conservatory of Music and he Boston and Harvard Universities. He later went on earn a theology degree from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. from Edinburgh University in Scotland.

Upon their return to the United States in 1912, the Becks settled in Chicago where Frank spent over 25 years serving as a teacher, minister, and social worker. He served as a professor at the Garrett Biblical Institute of Northwestern University, minister of the Wabash Avenue Methodist Church in the infamous First Ward on the fringe of The Loop, the first survey director for the Chicago Welfare department, the executive secretary of the Chicago Inter-Church World Movement and worked with Jane Adams in Hull House and in the missions along Skid Row. Drawing from each of these experiences, in 1956 he published the book Hobohemia.

Retiring in 1934, Frank and Daisy returned to their alma mater where neither held official positions at the university, but rather served as unofficial counselors to the student body and the administration. In 1937, at the request of President Wells, Frank Beck began work to organize what would become the University Committee on Religion which consisted of representatives from various religious faiths and sought to ease prejudice with tolerance and understanding. The related Student Religious Cabinet formed shortly thereafter. As the programs grew, the Beck’s began a nearly twenty year campaign to build a place of worship on campus for those of all faiths, and in 1957 thanks in large part to their own donation Beck Chapel was dedicated. The chapel houses the symbols of the Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and Muslim faiths. Until his death, Frank served as the chapel Curator, presiding over the weddings of numerous students.

While working with Indiana University's religious programs, Beck was also extensively involved with community concerns such as issues effecting the elderly and race relations. Beck founded the Borrowed Time Club for senior citizens in 1949 which sought to combat the widely accepted notion of the social uselessness of the elderly, and was the first chair of the State Commission on the Aged and the Aging. In 1965 Beck was recognized by the state of Indiana for his work on behalf of senior citizens. In 1959 following on the path of his previous work for social and racial equality in Chicago, Beck published Some Aspects of Race Relations at Indiana University.

Frank preceded his wife in death on August 17, 1968, at the age of 96, and she followed nearly four years later on April 24, 1972 at the age of 95.

From the guide to the Frank O. and Daisy Beck papers, 1890-1969, bulk 1910-1969, (Indiana University Office of University Archives and Records Management http://www.libraries.iub.edu/archives)