Isaac K. Beckes
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Isaac Kelley Beckes (September 19, 1909 – July 13, 1988) was the president of Vincennes University from 1950 to 1980. Before going to Vincennes he was the executive secretary of the United Christian Youth Movement. He is considered one of the initial leaders of a nationwide educational movement to add occupational programs alongside college transfer programs at two-year post-secondary institutions. He was also the first president of a two-year college to gain an exemption from the North American Interfraternity Conference and have national fraternities established at his school.


Early life

Beckes was born in Vincennes, Indiana to Arthur and Julia (Kelley) Beckes. His mother died when he was one year old. He completed his Associates degree at Vincennes University in 1933 and his Bachelor’s Degree from Indiana State Teachers College in 1935. In 1938 he received the
Bachelor of Divinity In Western universities, a Bachelor of Divinity or Baccalaureate in Divinity (BD or BDiv; la, Baccalaureus Divinitatis) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded for a course taken in the study of divinity or related disciplines, such as theology ...
from McCormick Theological Seminary and his
Ph.D A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...
in 1943 from
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. He became an ordained
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minister. On April 24, 1938, he married Ruth Laverne Alexander. They had two children, a son named Leland and a daughter named Kelley.


United Christian Youth Movement

By 1944, Beckes was living in the
Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
area and had become the director of the Young People’s Department of the International Council of Religious Education and the executive secretary of the United Christian Youth Movement. The movement represented forty different
Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
denominations with over ten million youths. He directed the nationwide programs of the member churches’
religious education In secular usage, religious education is the teaching of a particular religion (although in the United Kingdom the term ''religious instruction'' would refer to the teaching of a particular religion, with ''religious education'' referring to te ...
activities in the
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and
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. In 1941 he wrote the book ''“Young Leaders In Action”''. In 1946 he wrote the booklet ''“Weekday Religious Education : Help or Hindrance to Inter- Religious Understanding"''.


Vincennes University

In 1950, Beckes returned to Vincennes to take over Vincennes University which was the only state supported
junior college A junior college (sometimes referred to colloquially as a juco, JuCo or JC) is a post-secondary educational institution offering vocational training designed to prepare students for either skilled trades and technical occupations and workers in su ...
in
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. At the time, enrollment had dropped to 185 students and there was only one building in the downtown area. It was apparent that the university did not have the funding needed to match the needs of the returning
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
veterans. The budget that year $103,000.40. Working with another VU alumnus and chairman of the college's
Board of Trustees A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...
, Judge
Curtis Shake Curtis Grover Shake (July 14, 1887 – September 11, 1978), a noted Indiana jurist and politician, author, and a member of the Indiana Senate, is best known for his service as the 72nd justice of the Indiana Supreme Court from January 4, 19 ...
, Beckes was able to make some rapid improvements with the university through a local
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drive. The city and the
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donated Harrison Park to the school for use as a new
campus A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a college campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls, student centers or dining halls, and park-like se ...
and the new classroom and administration building was moved into in October 1953. The rest of the buildings were composed of the city water utilities’ old renovated pump house and some army surplus structures. Other nearby vacant industrial building were later bought and renovated causing Shake to comment that "the school had the best second-hand campus in the U.S." In 1955 the
Indiana Legislature The Indiana General Assembly is the state legislature, or legislative branch, of the state of Indiana. It is a bicameral legislature that consists of a lower house, the Indiana House of Representatives, and an upper house, the Indiana Senate. Th ...
agreed to provide two dollars of funding for every dollar that was raised by a Knox County tax that supported the university. The college and its two-year programs were approved and fully accredited by the
North Central Association of Colleges and Schools The North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA), also known as the North Central Association, was a membership organization, consisting of colleges, universities, and schools in 19 U.S. states engaged in educational accreditation. It w ...
in 1956, and the school grew rapidly thereafter. This allowed the school to build a new
student union A students' union, also known by many other names, is a student organization present in many colleges, universities, and high schools. In higher education, the students' union is often accorded its own building on the campus, dedicated to social, ...
building in 1959 and a new
library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...
in 1960. In 1957 he signed a trial (one year) transfer agreement with
Frederick L. Hovde Frederick Lawson Hovde (7 February 1908 – 1 March 1983) was an American chemical engineer, researcher, educator and president of Purdue University. Born in Erie, Pennsylvania, Hovde received his Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from the Unive ...
of
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. The agreement allowed students at VU who completed as associate degree in
Agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...
to transfer to Purdue to complete their bachelor's degree. VU students are treated the same as Purdue students who are entering their
junior year A junior is person in the third year at an educational institution; usually at a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. In United States high schools, a junio ...
. The agreement has been offered continuously since it was first signed. When Colonel Eugene C. Wharf died his widow, Mrs. Stella C. Wharf, conveyed the family home,
Shadowwood Shadowwood, also known as the Wharf Estate, is a historic estate located in Palmyra Township, Knox County, Indiana. The house was built on land purchased from Robert B. Patterson on what had been part of the Rose Hill Farmstead. The main ho ...
, to the university as a memorial. At the suggestion of Judge Shake, Beckes worked to transfer the property to the Grand Chapter of the
Sigma Pi Sigma Pi () is a collegiate fraternity with 233 chapters at American universities. As of 2021, the fraternity had more than 5,000 undergraduate members and over 110,000 alumni. Sigma Pi headquarters are in Nashville, Tennessee. The fraternity ...
fraternity for use as its national headquarters in August 1961. The fraternity had been founded at the university in 1897. Mrs. Wharf heartily approved of the deal. In 1964 Beckes appointed Fred Walker to create a
journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...
program for the college. VU also established its own
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outlet. With the growth and accreditation of the school, Beckes looked for other ways to enhance the university. Working with Sigma Pi, he was able to get an exemption from the North American Interfraternity Conference (NIC) in 1964. The NIC had forbidden fraternity chapters at junior colleges. He helped form an interest group known as the Corinthian Club that eventually became a
colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the ''metropole, metropolit ...
of the
fraternity A fraternity (from Latin language, Latin ''wiktionary:frater, frater'': "brother (Christian), brother"; whence, "wiktionary:brotherhood, brotherhood") or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club (organization), club or fraternal ...
. When the Alpha chapter’s charter was granted in 1965, he was initiated into the organization with the undergraduate members and their faculty advisor. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Beckes served as a director for the National League for Nursing. He was affiliated with the group into the early 1980s. As the school grew, it began getting line-item funding in the Indiana state budget in 1965. It also grew more complex and Dr. Beckes, along with VU Director of Administrative Services Robert Stryzinski, worked with the legislature to revamp the school’s Board of trustees from twenty-four members to a more manageable number in 1976. That year the school’s budget was over $5 million.


Retirement

When Beckes resigned as president in 1980, the school had grown to 4,600 students with a campus of 85 acres and fifty buildings. After retirement he continued to improve the university as head of the VU Alumni Foundation and as a member of the Vincennes Area Community Development Corporation. He died at Good Samaritan Hospital in Vincennes in 1988.


Honors

In 1957, VU built a new student union which was named for him. It contained a student lounge, cafeteria, bookstore, and meeting rooms.
In 1964, Beckes was given the Indiana State University Distinguished Alumni Award.
On May 17, 1980, he received an Honorary
LL.D Legum Doctor (Latin: “teacher of the laws”) (LL.D.) or, in English, Doctor of Laws, is a doctorate-level academic degree in law or an honorary degree, depending on the jurisdiction. The double “L” in the abbreviation refers to the earl ...
Degree from Indiana State University - Muncee.
In the summer of 1980 he received Sigma Pi Fratenity’s Founders’ Award.
In 1981, he was given the Walter A. Davis Citation by the Vincennes University Alumni Association.
In 1992, VU built a new student union which was named for him. The original student union was renamed Governors Hall.
The Knox County Development Corporation named their
industrial park An industrial park (also known as industrial estate, trading estate) is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more "heavyweight" version of a business park or office park, ...
in his honor.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beckes, Isaac 1909 births 1988 deaths People from Vincennes, Indiana Vincennes University faculty McCormick Theological Seminary alumni Vincennes University alumni Indiana State University alumni Yale University alumni American Presbyterian ministers Presidents of Vincennes University 20th-century American clergy 20th-century American academics