Arnold Beckman

Early life

Beckman was born in Cullom, Illinois, a village of about 500 people in a farming community. He was the youngest son of George Beckman, a blacksmith, and his second wife Elizabeth Ellen Jewkes. He was curious about the world from an early age. When he was nine, Beckman found an 1868 chemistry textbook, Joel Dorman Steele's Fourteen Weeks in Chemistry, and began trying out the experiments. His father encouraged his scientific interests by letting him convert a toolshed into a laboratory.

Beckman's mother, Elizabeth, died of diabetes in 1912. Beckman's father sold his blacksmith shop, and became a travelling salesman for blacksmithing tools and materials. A housekeeper, Hattie Lange, was engaged to look after the Beckman children. Arnold Beckman earned money as a "practice pianist" with a local band, and as an "official cream tester" running a centrifuge for a local store.

In 1914, the Beckman family moved to Normal, located just north of Bloomington, Illinois, so that the young Beckmans could attend University High School in Normal, a "laboratory school" associated with Illinois State University. In 1915 they moved to Bloomington itself, but continued to attend University High, where Arnold Beckman obtained permission to take university level classes from professor of chemistry Howard W. Adams. While still in high school, Arnold started his own business, "Bloomington Research Laboratories", doing analytic chemistry for the local gas company. He also performed at night as a movie-house pianist, and played with local dance bands. He graduated valedictorian of his class, with an average of 89.41 over four years, the highest attained.

Beckman was allowed to leave school a few months early to contribute to the First World War effort in early 1918 by working as a chemist. At Keystone Steel and Iron he took samples of molten iron and tested them to see if the chemical composition of carbon, sulfur, manganese and phosphorus was suitable for pouring steel.

When Beckman turned 18 in August 1918, he enlisted in the United States Marines. After three months at marine boot camp on Parris Island, South Carolina, he was sent to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, for transit to the war in Europe. Because of a train delay, another unit embarked in place of Beckman's unit. Then, counted into groups in the barracks, Beckman missed being sent to Russia by one space in line. Instead, Arnold spent Thanksgiving at the local YMCA, where he met 17-year-old Mabel Stone Meinzer, who was helping to serve the meal. Mabel would become his wife. A few days later, the armistice was signed, ending the war.

Relationship with Caltech

During his time at Caltech, Beckman was active in teaching at both the introductory and advanced graduate levels. Beckman shared his expertise in glass-blowing by teaching classes in the machine shop. He also taught classes in the design and use of research instruments. Beckman dealt first-hand with the chemists' need for good instrumentation as manager of the chemistry department's instrument shop. Beckman's interest in electronics made him very popular within the chemistry department at Caltech, as he was very skilled in building measuring instruments.

Over the time that he was at Caltech, the focus of the department increasingly moved towards pure science and away from chemical engineering and applied chemistry. Arthur Amos Noyes, head of the chemistry division, encouraged both Beckman and chemical engineer William Lacey to be in contact with real-world engineers and chemists, and Robert Andrews Millikan, Caltech's president, referred technical questions to Beckman from government and businesses. With their blessing, Beckman began accepting outside work as a scientific and technical consultant. He also acted as a scientific expert in legal trials.

In 1964, he accepted an offer to become chairman of the Caltech Board of Trustees, where he'd been a member since 1953.

The Beckmans became increasingly active as philanthropists, with the stated intention of giving away their personal wealth before their deaths.

Their first major philanthropic gift went to Caltech. In supporting Caltech, they expanded on the long-term relationship that Beckman had begun as a student at Caltech, and continued as a teacher and trustee. In 1962, they funded the construction of a concert hall, the Beckman Auditorium, designed by architect Edward Durrell Stone. Over a period of years, they also supported the Beckman Institute, Beckman Auditorium, Beckman Laboratory of Behavioral Sciences, and Beckman Laboratory of Chemical Synthesis at the California Institute of Technology. In the words of Caltech's president emeritus David Baltimore, Beckman "has shaped the destiny of Caltech." The Beckmans are also named in the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and the Beckman Quadrangle at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation was incorporated in September 1977. At the time of Beckman's death, the Foundation had given more than 400 million dollars to a variety of charities and organizations. In 1990, it was considered one of the top ten foundations in California, based on annual gifts. Donations chiefly went to scientists and scientific causes as well as Beckman's alma maters. He is quoted as saying, "I accumulated my wealth by selling instruments to scientists... so I thought it would be appropriate to make contributions to science, and that's been my number one guideline for charity."

In the 1980s, they funded five major centers:

Beckman Research Institute (BRI) at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California, United States.

Beckman Laser Institute, University of California, Irvine, in Irvine, California

Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign

Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine at Stanford University, Stanford, California

Beckman Institute, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California

The Beckmans also gave to:

The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry at the Chemical Heritage Foundation (now the Science History Institute), Philadelphia, PA

The Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Irvine, CA

The Pepperdine University School of Business & Management's MBA program (1988)

After Mabel's death in 1989, Arnold Beckman reorganized the foundation to continue in perpetuity, and developed new initiatives for the foundation's giving.

A major focus became the improvement of science education. Beginning in 1998 the Foundation has provided over $23 million to support K-6 hands-on, research-based science education to school districts in Orange County, California, stimulating schools to integrate science into the K-6 curriculum as a core subject.

Arnold Beckman envisioned the Beckman Scholars and Beckman Young Investigators programs to support young scientists at the university level. Each year, the Beckman Foundation selects a list of universities and colleges, each of which selects student from its institution for the Beckman Scholars Program. The Beckman Young Investigators Program provides research support to promising faculty members in the early stages of academic careers in the chemical and life sciences, particularly those whose work involves methods, instruments and materials that may open up new avenues of research in science. In 2017, the Beckman Postdoctoral Fellows award was launched, similarly aimed at supporting promising young postdoctoral scholars in their chemistry or chemical instrumentation research.

The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation also supports vision research through its Beckman Initiative in Macular Research and the Beckman-Argyros Award in Vision Research. Supported activities include research into laser surgery and macular degeneration.