IN MEMORIAM: Joe Beck

NEHA was saddened to learn that Joe Beck passed away on August 9, 2014. Beck will be remembered for his many contributions to the environmental health profession-from his love of teaching and his devotion to students, to all the textbooks and papers he authored, to his kind and generous spirit.

Beck graduated from Paducah Junior College with an associate degree in chemistry and the physical sciences, received a bachelor of science degree from Murray State University in biology and geology, and a master of public administration and political science degree from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. He served proudly in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War and was stationed at Fort Campbell (Kentucky) with the 101st Airborne. He served as a preventive medicine officer and combat medic and received his medical training from the Fort Sam Houston Medical Field Service School.

From 1984 to 1988, Beck served as co-chair with then-Vice President George H.W. Bush on his Task Force on Environment and Health. He also worked extensively with Native American tribes as a consultant on public policy and environmental issues and played a major role in the creation of the National Council on Diversity in Environmental Health.

Beck also held past positions as a senior research staff scientist and project manager at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory, Battelle Memorial Institute; a visiting professor at Washington State University and as a faculty member at Illinois State University, Bloomington-Normal; department head of environmental sciences and health at Western Carolina University; and field practice positions with the Illinois State Department of Public Health and the McCracken County Health Department in Paducah, Kentucky.

Beck generously gave of his time to NEHA and numerous environmental health organizations. He was a member of NEHA and received the Past Presidents Award in 2012. He was a chair for NEHA's institutional environmental health technical section for nearly a decade and served as an advisor to the Student National...