Robert Earl Beckley, Ph.D.

Professor, author, researcher, church organist, traveler, and gifted storyteller, Robert Earl Beckley, Ph.D., died Thursday, March 30, 2017 in Amarillo, Texas, six days before his 76th birthday, after an illness of approximately five weeks.

He went peacefully, surrounded by his wife, Cheryl, and close friends who were like family.

A visitation will be held at Schooler Funeral Home’s Brentwood Chapel on Monday, April 3, 2017 from 6:00-7:00pm.

A memorial service to celebrate his life will be at First Presbyterian Church of Canyon on Tuesday, April 4 at 2:00pm.  The memorial service will be conducted by the Rev. Andy Blair, pastor; and the Rev. Stephen Smith-Cobbs of Herndon, VA, a former pastor of the church who will deliver the eulogy.  A private burial will be held in Llano Cemetery.  Arrangements are by Schooler Funeral Home, 4100 S. Georgia.

Dr. Beckley’s 39-year tenure at West Texas A&M University included teaching in the fields of sociology and criminal justice.  He chaired the Department of Sociology and Social Work from 1979 to 1986 and headed the committee to plan and implement the M.A. degree in criminal justice.

From 2001-02 he was president of the WTAMU Foundation Board, and served as its interim director from Sept. 2002 through Feb. 2003.

Starting with the administration of President Max Sherman and continuing into the administration of President Pat O’Brien, Dr. Beckley was organist for almost every WTAMU commencement and convocation.  After 31 years, this contribution was recognized with a special award and a standing ovation by the entire commencement audience.

He also received WTAMU’s Distinguished Graduate Faculty Award for 2004-05 and the Provost’s Appreciation Award for Outstanding Contributions, 2006-07.

Among his numerous publications are two books: Religion in Contemporary Society (3 editions), a textbook co-authored with H. Paul Chalfant and C. Eddie Palmer; and The Continuing Challenge of AIDS: Clergy Responses to Patients, Families, and Friends, co-authored with Jerome Koch.

In 1998-99, he served as president of the Southwestern Sociological Association, and in 2009 he received the Distinguished Service Award.

Dr. Beckley enhanced his love of travel by lecturing and delivering papers on sociology of religion research topics at conferences held in England, Ireland, Belgium, Finland, Hungary, France, Germany, and Italy. Two other unforgettable lecture trips were to Cairo, Egypt and Havana, Cuba when he accompanied a group of American ministers to Havana and in 1995 was an invited lecturer at The American University in Cairo.

One year after retiring from WTAMU on August 31, 2014 he was given the status of Professor Emeritus in 2015.

His interest in sociology of religion showed a close connection between his upbringing and his outstanding musical talents.

Born April 4, 1941 in Victoria, Texas, Robert spent his earliest years in nearby Bloomington, where his father, Charles Earl Beckley, was agent for the Missouri-Pacific railroad.  His mother, Kathrine Adele Ertle, had to be proposed to several times before she decided to leave her teaching career.  She finally accepted, and the Beckleys moved from Arkansas to Texas.

By the time the lad was six, MP had transferred Earl to Beaumont, where a postwar housing shortage limited the choice of rent houses to two.  The family narrowed their pick for a church home down to two, First Baptist or First Methodist.  Robert broke the tie: the Baptists, because their pipe organ was bigger.

Music soon became a major interest that turned into one that served him, and others, for a lifetime.  He got his first church organist job at 14, and wherever he would live in the future, there was a congregation wanting him to share his musical gifts.

Although he continued studying organ at Baylor University, his ambition had been to teach history or English until he took his first sociology class.   Intrigued, he stayed on as a graduate student at BU and received his M.A. in Sociology in 1968.

Lamar University in Beaumont began hiring M.A.’s for three-year instructor-level positions in Sociology.  Robert took advantage of that opportunity.  As usual, he saved for his future doctoral studies at American University by finding an organist-choirmaster job, too. It was during this interval, that he met Cheryl Lynne Markham, his future wife.  Not a musician herself, she nevertheless appreciated his talents and also encouraged him to become a writer.

They were married in Silsbee, Texas on June 2, 1973.  By now, Robert was a faculty member of Valparaiso University in Indiana, and meanwhile was conducting interviews with professional football players for his dissertation.

The Beckleys returned to Texas in 1975, when he joined the WT faculty as an assistant professor.  They settled into Panhandle living, and Robert served on the boards of the Samaritan Pastoral Counseling Center, Amarillo Symphony, and Friends of Aeolian Skinner 1024.

Dr. Beckley was organist of the First Presbyterian Church, Canyon for twenty-seven years and in 2016 was given the honor of Organist Emeritus. He served as an elder and church treasurer, as well.

The Beckleys’ only child, Brian, died at the age of twenty-three in a drowning.  In his memory, they established the Brian M. Beckley Scholarship for sociology majors.

Dr. Beckley is survived by his wife, Cheryl, and numerous cousins; Lee Ann Lewandowski of Conroe, Terry and wife Karen Beckley of Aransas Pass, Murby Morris of Corpus Christi, Tony Bailey and wife Stephanie of Spring, Jeff Bailey of Corpus Christi, Tonya Hamiltom of Arlington, Tasya Johnson, Terri Rin Morris of Corpus Christi, Kin Sanderlin of Portland, Mary Alice, Robert and Church Bridewell of Lake Village, AR and Joe Coffey and wife Sue of Bloomington.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to the Brian M. Beckley Scholarship, WTAMU Development Foundation, WTAMU Box 60766, Canyon, Texas 79016-001 or to the First Presbyterian Church, 904 19th Street, Canyon, Texas 79015.