PULLMAN — Wallis Beasley, a long-time academic leader of Washington State University who served as the university’s acting president in 1966-67, died Tuesday in Pullman. He was 92.
“Dr. Beasley was an influential figure in the history and development of Washington State University. We recognize and greatly appreciate his many contributions to the institution that he loved and helped lead, and we mourn his passing,” said Washington State University President Elson S. Floyd.
Beasley was born in Red Bay, Alabama, on October 10, 1915, the youngest of seven children born to J. T. and Emma Beasley. After graduating from Red Bay public schools, Beasley received a bachelor’s degree from Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas. It was there that he met Totsie Smith, his wife for more than 40 years.
He served briefly as a minister of the Church of Christ but soon realized that his future lay elsewhere. He turned to sociology and graduate school at Peabody University in Nashville, Tennessee. At Peabody he met T. H. Kennedy, another former-minister-turned-sociologist.
After receiving his doctoral degree from Peabody, Beasley began his teaching career at Pepperdine. But Kennedy, who had been appointed dean for social sciences at the State College of Washington (Washington State University), soon brought him to Pullman.
Beasley spent the remainder of his career serving the university community and the state of Washington in many capacities.
He was chair of what was then the Department of Sociology and Anthropology (later the Department of Sociology) during a period in which the department achieved national recognition.
When the department was authorized to grant the Ph. D. degree in the late 1940s, Beasley and Kennedy drew upon their experience with traditionally black colleges in the South to open doors that racism had closed to aspiring black students. Through this informal network word spread quickly and Washington State University soon established a national reputation for producing outstanding sociologists of color.
That legacy is reflected in the fact that four WSU alumni have been honored by the American Sociological Association with the Dubois/Johnson/Frazier Award, honoring the intellectual traditions and contributions of W.E.B. DuBois, Charles S. Johnson, and E. Franklin Frazier. The award, given either “to a sociologist for a lifetime of research, teaching, and service to the community or to an academic institution for its work in assisting the development of scholarly efforts in this tradition,” was later given to the WSU Department of Sociology, the first department of sociology or institutions in the country to be so honored.
Over his WSU career Beasley chaired or was a member of many university committees and for several years he was Faculty Athletic Representative to the Pacific Athletic Conference (now the Pac-10).
President C. Clement French appointed him academic vice president of the university and, in the fall of 1966, upon the retirement of French, the WSU Board of Regents appointed Beasley as acting president of the university, a post he served with distinction until the arrival of Glenn Terrell as president, on July 1, 1967.
Gen DeVleming, long-time assistant to Presidents French, Beasley, Terrell, and Samuel Smith, notes that Beasley’s appointment was well received.
“He kept WSU moving,” she said. “He always said that making no decision was the worst way for an administrator to manage a decision at least moved the institution in one direction and did not permit chaos to fill the void, and a direction could be altered by a later decision if it was deemed necessary.”
After Terrell’s arrival, Beasley served as executive vice president of WSU until his retirement in 1981.
As his retirement neared, the WSU Board of Regents approved naming the largest building on campus the Wallis Beasley Performing Arts Coliseum “in recognition of 33 years of distinguished leadership to the university community as a teacher, administrator and civic leader, 1949-1981.”
Upon retirement, the Beasleys moved to Port Ludlow. Totsie passed away in 1986 and Beasley later married Constance (Connie) Robertson, a Port Ludlow neighbor who was also widowed.
He returned to Pullman in the spring of 2008.
He is survived by Connie, of Coronado, California, her daughters and their families, four nieces and six nephews, some still living in Red Bay, Alabama, where Beasley is honored in the local museum for his WSU achievements; and by countless friends and associates whose lives he touched deeply.
At his adamant insistence, no memorial service will be held.
In the spring of 2002, Beasley spearheaded a WSU Foundation endowment campaign for the WSU Department of Sociology. A portion of that endowment in support of the research and teaching missions of the department was named for him. Memorial contributions, addressed either to the Department of Sociology or the Foundation, are welcome.
