Institute a Point of Pride for Arnold and Mabel Beckman
By Steve McGaughey, Beckman Institute Writer
Ted Brown, left, escorts Arnold and Mabel Beckman through the Beckman Institute during building construction.
Beckman Institute Founding Director Ted Brown has written that when Arnold and Mabel Beckman took their first tour through the completed superstructure of the building that would bear their name, Mabel was a bit taken aback. Even though the Beckmans had seen architectural plans and scale models of the building their generosity was bringing to life, her reaction showed she wasn’t quite prepared for seeing those plans turned into the second largest building on campus.
“Oh, Arnold, what have we done?” she asked her husband. Brown wrote that this “first visit to the construction site brought home to her the magnitude of the facility their gift was making possible.”
According to Brown, the Beckmans were highly involved in all phases of the building of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology that was made possible by their $40M gift. They visited the University of Illinois campus from their California home often between the announcement of the gift in 1985 and the official opening in April of 1989.
Many of the people who were around at the time when the Beckman Institute was being built and when it first opened have similar stories to tell about the Beckmans during their visits to Illinois. Most of them, like Brown, have moved on but a few are still on campus and a select few are still working at the Institute on the occasion of its 20th anniversary.
“They sat him in front of (the piano) and it was amazing. His fingers were just flying. You talk about a man who could use both sides of his brain – wow.” – NeuroTech Research coordinator Kathy Bates on the occasion of Arnold Beckman’s 99th birthday party.
One of those is Institute attendant Chris Roberts, who served as a driver for Arnold and his daughter Pat Beckman during their visit to Illinois in 1999. At that time, Arnold was just a little more than a year away from his 100th birthday.
Roberts said that he drove the Beckmans to the Cullom area, where Arnold was born and lived, for events at a library dedication (Arnold helped fund the project) and to a Boys and Girls Club dinner. They also stopped at the house where Arnold grew up before his family moved to Bloomington, and they were all invited inside by the people living there
“He had a real nice visit and we had lunch with them,” Roberts said. “When we were at lunch he started talking about how he didn’t really realize how much money he had made until somebody actually showed him his checkbook. I’d have to say that was my best experience here, getting to meet Arnold and spend some time with him.”
The Boys and Girls Club dinner also proved to be a prelude to Arnold’s well-remembered tour-de-force on the piano at his 99th birthday celebration held at the Institute.
“We were walking around in the building and they saw this small piano and his daughter said ‘hey dad why don’t you get on there and play a song?’ and he went over there and started playing,” Roberts said. “It was kind of surprising with him getting a little up there in age. But, boy, once he started on there it was kind of like he was in his own world.”
Kathy Bates is another Beckman original who is currently the Research Coordinator for the William Greenough Laboratory. Bates said that watching Arnold play piano in the atrium during his birthday party was a memorable event.
“They sat him in front of it and it was amazing,” Bates said. “His fingers were just flying. You talk about a man who could use both sides of his brain – wow. He was great.”
Bates’ interactions with the Beckmans go back to when she worked at Coble Hall and Arnold and Mabel Beckman would stop by to visit Brown.
“Mabel always kind of reminded me of the queen mum; she always had that very sweet face and her hair was done beautifully,” Bates said. “Arnold would have his flannel shirts and his khakis or jeans on. They were very cute.”
While Arnold visited with Brown, Mabel would talk with Bates and others, often about the Beckman Institute project. During one of those visits Mabel asked Bates for her thoughts on having a garden next to the building.
“She said ‘Now, I’m proposing that we have a garden. If you were to work in a brand new building, what would you like in your garden, just to have a nice place to sit and relax? I want to put in lots of ivy because that’s forever,’” Bates recalled. “I said ‘I hope you plant lots of bulbs that come up at different times of the year and she said ‘oh yes, everything’s going to be everlasting.’ She was great, just a very soft-spoken woman.”
Mike Marana, who has worked in the Beckman Institute’s Security Office since 1993, said much the same thing about Arnold Beckman.
“For someone of his background he was just a very easy-going guy,” Marana said. “He didn’t know a stranger and he would speak to anyone.
“He would always say hello; just a very genuine person. I remember being kind of intimated the first time I talked to him but that all went away after we had a conversation. I always felt comfortable saying hello and I always knew that I would get a hello back.”
As the key campus figure in bringing the Beckman Institute to reality, Brown can recount many episodes involving the Beckmans. As Vice-Chancellor for research at Illinois, he visited them in California during the proposal process, and often served as host during their visits to campus.
During one such visit in 1988, Arnold expressed an interest in the copper roof that was being installed, specifically how copper sheets were joined to form a continuous, leak-free roof. Brown said Arnold asked to see the installation process, a request that would require the octogenarian benefactor to climb four flights of temporary stairs.
Brown has written this about the adventure: “To appreciate what this says about Arnold’s stamina, one must keep in mind that the building has exceptionally large floor-to-floor heights to accommodate air handling and other utilities in overhead spaces. Arnold was 88 years old at the time.”
Brown also recounts an episode that revealed the relationship between Arnold and Mabel. Brown said that both Arnold and Mabel liked the finished work: “Mabel’s pride in her husband showed when the statue was unveiled. She turned to the person sitting alongside her and said, ‘That’s my Arnie!’”
After Arnold’s death in 2004, Brown remembered Arnold’s perspective on doing things the right way, both in his scientific endeavors and his business practices.
“There were conflicts and clashes of commercial interests,” Brown said. “But he always played by the rules. He played hardball but he never took any shortcuts from a moral or ethical point of view.
“In his company he was always proud of the fact Beckman instruments made good instruments and was a leader in the industry. When he turned to philanthropic work, the quality of the projects and the quality of the institute was a big factor. He wouldn’t put his funds into a second-rate project.”