Beck, Audrey Phillips, 1931-1983.

Audrey Beck was a University of Connecticut faculty member in the Economics Department. While on the faculty, she served on several local groups including the Mansfield (Connecticut) Board of Finance and the League of Women Voters. In 1967, Beck became an economist with the Windham Regional Planning Commission and was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives, serving there until 1975. She also served in the Connecticut State Senate from 1977-1983.

Audrey Phillips Beck was born on 6 August 1931, in Brooklyn, New York . Her family moved to Norwalk, Connecticut, where Audrey grew up. In 1949, she entered the University of Connecticut, where she received both her B.A.(1953) and M.A. (1955) degrees. In 1951, while still an undergraduate she married Curt Frederick Beck, a UConn instructor of Government and International Relations. A son, Ronald Rierson, was born 6 December 1952, while Audrey was a senior and a daughter, Meredith Wayne, was born 18 December 1955 after Audrey received her M.A.

Audrey Beck was appointed a graduate assistant in the Economics Department in 1953, an assistant instructor in economics in 1955 and in 1961 became a University of Connecticut faculty member, a position she held for seven years. While on the faculty, she served as a member of the Mansfield Board of Finance. She was a member of the League of Women Voters and served on the state Board of Directors of the LWV from 1962-1965. In 1967, she took a position as economist with the Windham Regional Planning Commission, and was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1968, where she served until 1975. During her years as State Representative, Beck was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, and from 1973-1975, served as Assistant Minority Leader in the House. During this period, she was the only female chairperson of a legislative finance committee in the country. She also served as chairperson for the Democratic State Platform Committee in 1974, 1976, and 1978. Following her three terms in the House, Beck spent one year as a visiting professor of practical politics at Rutgers University . In 1974, she was elected to the Connecticut State Senate, where she sat on the State Senate Education Committee, the Senate Finance Committee, and acted as Assistant Majority Leader from 1977-1983. Despite a painful divorce in 1979, Beck considered seeking the Democratic nomination for congress that year. She withdrew from the running, however, unable to raise sufficient campaign funds. Beck's primary involvement during her political career were equal rights for women, funding for education, and tax reform. In addition to her expertise on fiscal matters, Beck served on both the Council on Humanities and a State Ad Hoc Committee on the Arts. Audrey Beck died on 11 March 1983, at the age of fifty-one.