Obituary

Dr. Myrl Emil Beck, Jr. died on January 4, 2023, at the age of 89.  He was born to Myrl E. Beck, Sr and Hazel Bebee Beck in Beaumont, California on May 13, 1933.  His sister Susannah Beck (Barkdoll, Johnson) was 4 years younger.  Myrl’s family owned the Beaumont Hardware and Lumber Company, where he worked weekends and summers until he left for college.

Myrl had a love for learning and was an excellent student.  He graduated from Beaumont High School as valedictorian in 1951.  There he participated in some sports, including, in his own words “football (mediocre), basketball (fairly good) and tennis (good).”  He also played piano in several dance bands.

Myrl attended Caltech from 1951-1952, then attended Stanford from 1952-1955, intending to be a lawyer.  He was accepted to law school at Stanford but changed his mind and ultimately graduated with a bachelor’s degree in economics.  On graduation day in 1955 he married Virginia Geringer, and they raised three daughters and traveled for many years.

Myrl was drafted into the US Army and served until 1957, mostly in Landstuhl, Germany.  He honorably discharged as Specialist Third Class.  After the army he returned to Stanford for an MS degree in Geology, earned in 1959.  After graduating he worked for Chevron Oil in Bakersfield, California for a short period of time.  Daughter Karen was born in Redwood City in 1960, and daughter Linda was born exactly one year later, in 1961 in San Francisco.

In the early 1960’s the family moved to Washington, D.C. where he worked for the US Geological Survey, and daughter Kristen was born.  The family returned to California where Myrl attended UC Riverside, to earn his PhD in Geology in 1969.  After earning his PhD, he took an Assistant Professor position at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA, and has lived there ever since.  Four years after starting at WWU he made full professor.  He was the first to receive the Olscamp Outstanding Research Award.  He was well known on campus for his lively debates with friend and history professor Bob Keller in the faculty FAST publication.

Myrl married Linda Joyce in 1982, and they had a very happy life together with many travels and adventures until she died from ovarian cancer in 2011.  Linda worked many years as a physical therapist at St. Joseph Hospital.  After Linda died, he devoted himself to volunteering for Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and Marsha Rivkin Ovarian Cancer Research Center.  He wanted to further the cause of finding better treatments for ovarian cancer in any way he could.  He did fund raising and research and wrote a blog on the latest developments in ovarian cancer.  This gave purpose to his later retirement years.

Myrl had a very active life in geology research and teaching and was an important mentor for many geology students over the years.  He is well known in the geology community as one of the fathers of the Baja BC theory and has even last year been interviewed by Nick Zentner for his online geology teaching series.  Myrl was an excellent and prolific writer, with more than 100 research publications to his name.  He has done field work in the Appalachians, Great Lakes, California coast range, Cascade mountains, Olympic mountains, Colorado Rocky mountains; Chile, Argentina, Columbia and Tobago in South America; Barbados, Grenada, the Grenadines in the Caribbean; and Italy and Greece in Europe.  In 1997 he finally retired but continued to be involved in research for about a decade.

After retiring, Myrl developed an interest in trees, and particular the trees on campus at WWU, which includes some unusual species.  He constructed the WWU tree tour and tree lovers still benefit from this today. He also renewed his love for the southern California desert, in particular Borrego Springs, California, where he and Linda had a condo and spent winters for many happy years.  He made many friends there and was active as a volunteer in the Anza-Borrego Desert Paleontology Society, where he gave talks and participated in field trips.

Besides geology, Myrl’s principal interests in life were his family, hiking and climbing mountains, travel, and drinking beer (his words!).  He was always as physically active as possible, and an avid runner.  He once ran a marathon in less than 3 hours, and a 50-mile race in just over 7 hours!  He spread his love for the mountains to many friends and family and will be remembered when we admire beautiful snow-covered peaks.

Myrl loved adventure and intellectual conversations and was able to keep those up almost until the end of his life.  In the last year of his life, he even took a jet boat up Hell’s Canyon with sister-in-law Carolyn Joyce, who was a good friend to him, especially during Linda’s illness and in the years after Linda died.  They visited Mt Saint Helens on that trip as well, and even sat outside in 100-degree heat admiring Dry Falls State Park.  He was not ready to quit, and a trip to Winthrop, WA, a favorite area of his, was planned for his 90^th birthday in May.  We are sad that he did not survive for that, but the family will go and celebrate him.

Myrl was preceded in death by his parents, his sister Susannah Johnson, his niece Florence Swanson (Patrick), and his wife Linda Joyce Beck. He is survived by his first wife Virginia Foster, daughters Karen Beck (Kelly Hatch), Linda (Paul) Kelly, and Kristen Beck (Joe Mortimer); his granddaughters Amanda (James) Wiese, Olivia (Chris) Moreno, and Angie Kelly; his great grandchildren in order of age: Evelyn, Seamus, Finnegan, Hugo, and Thomas; and nephew Ivan Barkdoll.  Also important in his life were relatives by marriage Carolyn Joyce and her family, Richard and Raelyn Joyce and their family, and Bunny and David Schneider and their family.  He was greatly loved and admired by many former students, friends and colleagues.

Myrl will be at Bayview Cemetery next to Linda.  A memorial service is planned for early June, 2023.  In the meantime, please share memories and pictures here or on his Facebook page.  Thank you all for the role you played in making his life full of meaning and adventure.  If you are interested in donating in his honor, please donate to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center on Linda Joyce Beck’s page:  https://secure.fredhutch.org/site/TR/PersonalFundraisingPages/General?px=1148821&pg=personal&fr_id=1573, or to the charity of your choice.

A celebration of life will be held on June 1st at 4:00 at the Squalicum Boat House in Bellingham Harbor.