James E. Beasley

by

Peter J. Liacouras

Chancellor of Temple University and University Professor of Law

At the Memorial Service of the James E. Beasley School of Law of Temple University, October 18, 2004

As we celebrate the passing of Jim Beasley who was an icon while he was living, the temptation is to paint the portrait of a saint, a philosopher king or divinely-inspired philanthropist – a myth and symbol.

But if we ignore Jim’s frailties and discuss only his strengths, we would miss the point about what made him so successful and generous. He was intensely human.

If Jim Beasley had not lived his life to the fullest and understood the good as well as the bad, we would not be celebrating his enormous professional successes and awesome philanthropy today.

I knew Jim well, and for forty years. Like many others, I was often in awe of his professional successes and his unconditional generosity. I wondered why, and what drove this man and his actions. I’ll share my own short answers.

Jim believed he could communicate with juries because he was not a saint.

He did not pontificate.

He did not hide his passion for life, for its highs and lows, the pleasures and pains, hopes and despair that test our enduring hearts. Jim never glossed over his own imperfections, or his humble origins.

Indeed, he made them the foundation for his career and philanthropy.

They were based on his comprehension that the range of human feelings and experiences, and the sense of fairness that average persons and families aspire to attain, were like his own.

Jim’s laser-beam focus of his talent, skill, energy, artistry and courage was on the goal of attaining fairness for his clients. He unraveled factual complexities into their core meanings. He explained them in a plain-spoken, demonstrative manner. He had an uncanny ability to capture the full range of feelings and experiences of average persons. He evinced the controlled rage of a master advocate – factually linking a defendant’s acts to the injuries suffered by his client leading inexorably to the decision that a just result could be attained only through a substantial award.

Jim was a demanding colleague, often to the point of exasperation. He was also very generous and quietly supportive of his colleagues. He was a voracious worker. He demanded excellence in himself and others.

These were among the qualities that led to his philanthropy, culminating in the largest endowment in Temple University’s history.

He never forgot who he was and where he came from. This recognition drove an uncompromising goal to pursue human justice for others, and to improve others’ lives. He supported others – generously, spontaneously, quietly and usually anonymously – as they faced a major hurdle in education, work or when embarking on a new career.

It was the drive to share his successes with others, and in linking his generosity to life’s experiences good and bad, that I associate with Jim Beasley.

Jim’s philanthropy was driven by understanding that his humble origins, travails, good and bad luck, failures and material successes should be coupled with his own sense of human justice for the benefit of others.

When he was in a position to help others, he unhesitatingly helped.

When he was in a position to help the institution that was there for him when he was ready and needed one to prepare him for the professional career he earlier thought was outside his grasp, he unhesitatingly helped.

By acting on the full range of his life’s experiences, including emphatically his drive to further human justice by extending the hand of opportunity to others, Jim Beasley’s life is one we celebrate with abiding respect and deep appreciation.

This native Philadelphian who spent many of his formative years in rural Mississippi, who moved from truck driver to honor student in college and law school and to an incredible career as a lawyer, now belongs to the ages.

Future generations of deserving, ambitious women and men of modest means will, thanks to Jim’s actions, be able to prepare for careers in law and public service in the demanding, nurturing and intensely human environment of the James E. Beasley School of Law of Temple University.

For them, the name James E. Beasley will probably conjure up a symbol and myth.

It has been our privilege to know Jim Beasley, the man.

It is he whom we gratefully honor today.