Earl Beecher

When I started at Long Beach, they had 12,000 students and plenty of parking. When I left, we had 38,000 students and had to cap it because we were growing so rapidly and we had become a major university, the largest in student enrollment west of the Mississippi river. I was developing and bringing new finance courses into the curriculum that had been offered; I became the first to teach some of the newer programs that was implemented into the school and I had a large part in developing courses that are still taught today.

We tried to design a program that suited student’s expectations and provided a quality education to all.  I also participated in directed studies, where I sat down with students individually to help them progress professionally. I would often bring back mentors to put on panels, which allowed students to gain insight and first-hand knowledge about the Finance field and what it was really like to work in the business world.

I was hired as a consultant for the Orange county Finance Directors office and was able to bring my students to get a real world feel. My main goal was to build the finance and research department within the school.  I wanted to build up classes that could get capital funding and grow the Finance department.

I had been working for the Bureau of Business and Economic research at UCLA for six years before I decided to move on. When I first came to Long Beach, it was not a University yet it was just a college. At the time, I was conducting research and took part in the research at the security pacific national bank, one of the biggest banks in the state. Years later, it was merged into Bank of America. The Head of the Business department, Austin Reep, made me a job offer to get back into teaching. I had taught at eight universities prior to or while at Long Beach. 

Dr. George Demos – Dean of students

I am currently retired and got involved in the media and formed a record company where I was fortunate enough to have one of the top jazz performers record for me. I was able to produce with Paul Smith and released over 500 CD’s. I stopped that in 2011 and decided to go into radio and television. I have hosted and produced 440 television shows and over 1900 radio shows. I continue to pursue this through K-beach at Long Beach every Monday morning. Through these experiences, I was able to interview almost any political person that came to interest. I worked with Judy Garland and Johnny Ray to name a few.

Wonderful, you could sense the student’s enthusiasm and I made it a point to actively communicate with my students. I took great joy in knowing that as a professor I could help develop them both professionally and academically. I love to see people grow and succeed.

Deadly: the head of the campus took so much hatred, stress that he in turn had a heart attack, and died.

I truly did not understand what I was stepping into when I accepted this position and although the campus faced great disturbances and problems, I was able to see the campus grow into the establishment it is today.

I hated the campus politics but I loved working with its students.