Alumnus and former Yale trustee William S. Beinecke has endowed the Frederick W. Beinecke Chair in Engineering in honor of his father, Frederick W. "Fritz" Beinecke, who received his degree in civil engineering from the University in 1909.
Mr. Beinecke said, "I am making this gift in memory of my father because of the life-long value that he placed on the engineering education that he received at Yale." In the early 1920s Frederick Beinecke and his two brothers cofounded the Sperry and Hutchinson Co, which at its peak employed 17,000 persons. He was one of the country's foremost collectors of Western Americana and made major contributions to Yale's holdings in this area. The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, completed in 1963, was a gift of the three Beinecke brothers and their families.
To honor the establishment of the Beinecke chair, D. Allan Bromley, dean of the Faculty of Engineering, will host a reception on Monday, May 13, at 4:30 p.m. in the Beinecke Library, corner of Wall and High streets. The Yale community is invited.
William Beinecke received his B.A. from Yale in 1936 and his LL.B. from Columbia University Law School in 1940. He then joined the firm of Chadbourne, Wallace, Park and Whiteside but went on leave in 1941 to join the U.S. Navy. He served in both Atlantic and Pacific theatres, was awarded the Bronze Star, and left active service in 1945 with the rank of lieutenant commander. Returning to his law firm, he remained there until 1945 when he was one of the founders of the law firm of Carey, Beinecke and Chase.
In 1952, Mr. Beinecke joined the Sperry and Hutchinson Co. as general counsel and was elected as vice president in 1954 and as director a year later. In 1960, he became president of S&H and in 1966 chairman of the board, a post he held until his retirement in 1980.
Mr. Beinecke was also chair of the board of trustees of the Central Park Conservancy from 1980 to 1985 -- currently Life Trustee -- is chair and director of the board of the Hudson River Foundation for Science and Environmental Research, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, an honorary manager of the board of managers of the New York Botanical Garden, and an honorary trustee of the American Museum of Natural History and a member of its Planetarium Committee.
He served 1971-82 as a fellow of the Yale Corporation. He is also an honorary trustee of The Pingry School and of St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital. He is currently president and a member of the board of directors of the Prospect Hill Foundation, and a director of Antaeus Enterprises Inc., as well as a director and vice president of the Sperry Fund. He has served on the boards of Consolidated Edison Co. of New York Inc., Harlem Savings Bank, Home Insurance Co., Manufacturers Hanover Corp. and Texas Gulf Sulphur Corp., among others. He received an honorary LL.B. degree from Yale in 1986.
He was married in 1941 to the former Elizabeth Barrett Gillespie and they have four children: Frederick W., '66; John B., '69; Sarah B. Richardson; and Frances Beinecke Elston '71, Forestry '74, who currently is a fellow of the Yale Corporation.