Sir Marcus Truby Beeck (28 December 1923 – 2 May 1986) was an Australian farmer and businessman. He served as president of the

Royal Agricultural Society of Western Australia The Royal Agricultural Society of Western Australia (RASWA) was established 1831 in Western Australia. Early history It held its first annual agricultural show, the Fair and Cattle Show, at Guildford, Western Australia, Guildford on 7 November ...

from 1975 to 1978 and as chairman of

Wesfarmers Wesfarmers Limited is an Australian conglomerate, headquartered in Perth, Western Australia. It has interests predominantly in Australia and New Zealand, operating in retail, chemical, fertiliser, industrial and safety products. With revenue o ...

from 1983 until his death.

Early life

Beeck was the son of Martha Ellen (née Keast) and Gustav Edwin Beeck. He was born at the family property in

Katanning, Western Australia Katanning is a town located south-east of Perth, Western Australia on the Great Southern Highway. At the 2016 census, Katanning had a population of 3,687. History The name ''Katanning'' is derived from the native name for a camping place. T ...

. Beeck learned by

distance education Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually in ...

in all but his final year of schooling. He enlisted in the

Royal Australian Air Force "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

(RAAF) in May 1942 and trained as a fitter, serving in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...

, in

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and ea ...

, and on Morotai.Wendy Birman, 'Beeck, Sir Marcus Truby (1923–1986)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/beeck-sir-marcus-truby-12189/text21851, published first in hardcopy 2007, accessed online 21 June 2017. On his return to Australia, Beeck acquired a sheep and grain property at Coyrecup (just east of Katanning). He married Leonie Robertson in 1950, with whom he would have four children.

Career

Community service

Beeck served on the Katanning Road Board from 1947 to 1951, and was involved with many local organisations. He was elected as a councillor of the

in 1966, and served as president from 1975 to 1978, overseeing a redevelopment of the

Claremont Showground The Claremont Showground near Perth, Western Australia is home to the annual Perth Royal Show. In 1902, of land were reserved in the Perth suburb of Claremont for a new showground to replace the Guildford Showgrounds. The Royal Agricultural S ...

. Beeck accompanied numerous overseas

trade mission Trade mission is an international trip by government officials and businesspeople that is organized by agencies of national or provincial governments for purpose of exploring international business opportunities. Business people who attend trade ...

s (often under the auspices of the Department of Overseas Trade), and visited Europe, Japan, the Soviet Union, and Indonesia. Beeck was created a

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are th ...

in the

1979 Birthday Honours The Queen's Birthday Honours 1979 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The appointments were made to celebrate ...

, "in recognition of service to agriculture".It's An Honour
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Business career

Beeck was elected to the board of the Grain Pool of Western Australia in 1969, and served as chairman from 1972 to 1973 and from 1975 to 1977. He was president of the steering committee that arranged for amalgamation of the pool with the barley and seed

marketing board A marketing board is an organization created by many producers to try to market their product and increase consumption and thus prices. It can also be defined as an organization set up by a government to regulate the buying and selling of a certain ...

s. Beeck was made a director of

in 1977, and then in 1983 succeeded

Maurice Clayton Maurice may refer to: People *Saint Maurice (died 287), Roman legionary and Christian martyr *Maurice (emperor) or Flavius Mauricius Tiberius Augustus (539–602), Byzantine emperor *Maurice (bishop of London) (died 1107), Lord Chancellor and Lo ...

as chairman. Wesfarmers was still organised as a farmers'

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-contro ...

at that time, but the following year transitioned to a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange ( ...

and listed on the

Australian Stock Exchange Australian Securities Exchange Ltd or ASX, is an Australian public company that operates Australia's primary securities exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange (sometimes referred to outside of Australia as, or confused within Australia as ...

. Beeck continued on as chairman until his death from cancer in 1986.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beeck, Marcus 1923 births 1986 deaths Australian chairpersons of corporations Australian farmers Australian Knights Bachelor Australian people of German descent People from Katanning, Western Australia Royal Australian Air Force personnel of World War II Wesfarmers people Royal Australian Air Force airmen

Early life

Career

Community service

Business career

See also

References