Volunteer of the Month: Charles Beach
By Mel Rubenstein
Although you have known someone for years, it does not mean that you really know them. I have known Charles (Charlie) Beach since our days in high school, but as the years have gone by, we took different paths and never caught up with each other. Writing this column has allowed me to catch up with him.
Charlie was born in Syracuse, the son of Arthur and Norma. For 40 years Arthur was corporate council at Syracuse City Hall. Norma was a French teacher in the Syracuse city school system.
Charlie attended Nottingham High School and went on to Syracuse University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in arts and sciences in 1958, and a master’s of science degree.
Then, Charlie entered a training program to be a rep for Phillips Electronics in Murray Hill, New Jersey and began to represent them in Upstate New York, working out of an office in Rochester. His main customers were Kodak and Xerox. To grow the business Charlie hired his daughter Karen, and son David, as his marketing team. When Charles retired in 2018, Karen and David continued to run the business.
Since his retirement he has become a full-time volunteer for a number of Syracuse area organizations.
The following is a litany of the volunteer commitments of Charles Beach:
During his years in business Beach found the time to be a productive volunteer for the United Methodist Church in Syracuse. He led a committee in renovating and decorating the church. He also became a board member of the Syracuse chapter of the American Red Cross. One of Charlie’s initiatives was to make the Heimlich maneuver procedure available for the Red Cross to use as routine procedure to save lives. The Heimlich maneuver is a first aid procedure used to treat upper airway obstructions (or choking) by foreign objects. The term Heimlich maneuver is named after Dr. Henry Heimlich, who first described it in 1974. Charles Beach negotiated directly with Dr. Heimlich for permission for the Red Cross to use the Doctor’s name and the procedure.
Syracuse University was founded in 1831 by the Methodist Episcopal Church. Because of that, agreements were made that at least two board members of the university would be Methodists. Charles Beach became one of those board members and became a Syracuse University trustee in 1991. During this time, Charles worked with Harvey Kaiser, dean of the Syracuse School of Architecture, to develop plans to expand and renovate facilities. One of the many accomplishments that Beach is very proud of is the relocation and building of the Carnegie Library. As of this writing, Charles Beach is still a trustee of the university.
Beach is also a board member and former president of Vera House.
Vera House prevents, responds to, and partners to end domestic and sexual violence and other forms of abuse. He advocated for the White Wristband campaign that brings awareness of domestic violence. Through his connection to Syracuse University, Charlie Beach arranged for the administration of SU and representatives of Vera House to meet regularly to discuss ways to ward off domestic violence. Beach was chairman of the facilities committee that purchased a building on James Street for the new home of Vera House. He was voted to be an honoree in 2002.
Inter Faith Works of CNY also benefited with Charles Beach being the past president of the board, and is still an active board member. Charlie is proud that InterFaith Works resettles 300 refugees per years in the Syracuse area. He also supported dialogue programs that brought people together to talk about common issues. Beach was voted to be an honoree of InterFaith Works in 2016.
“Service Above Self” epitomizes who Charlie Beach is. It is also the slogan of Rotary clubs all over the world. He believes in the Rotary “Four Way Test” that asks Rotarians to use as a moral code: 1. Is it the truth? 2. Is it fair to all concerned? 3. Will it build good will and better friendships? 4. Will it be beneficial to all concerned? Beach is the president of the Syracuse Rotary Club and is proud of the annual Christmas party held at Drumlins. Each year they invite 40 to 50 kids from a different school to have a good meal, meet Santa Claus, and receive gifts. Charlie says; “The smiles on their faces is worth everything.”
In 1980 Charles Beach was president of the board of the Folts Nursing Home in Herkimer, New York which is affiliated with the Methodist Church. At that time the organization had 123 Life Care contracts for people to live the remainder of their lives at Folts. That took money, and when some of these people outlived their life expectancy, it hurt the Folts Home financially. Charles Beach came to the rescue and contacted the Bishop of the United Methodist Church to come on the board and look into the problem. The board raised enough money so the original group of 123 could live their rest of their lives at Folts. Over the next 10 years the Beach financial team raised a million dollars with the help of Methodists Churches throughout Central and Western New York to underwrite these contracts. Although the Supreme Court has ruled that lifetime contracts are now unconstitutional, they allowed the current ones to run their course.
As a trustee of the MPH School Charlie Beach hired Baxter Hall, who was head of the school until his recent retirement. With Charles and Baxter working as a team, they renovated older buildings and constructed new ones on the MPH campus. It so happens that Beach has three grandchildren, one who graduated from MPH and two who are still students there.
Oh … one more thing. Charles Beach is president of the board of directors of the Elmcrest Children’s Center.
In recognition of the litany of volunteer positions held by Charles Beach he has received many awards: Post Standard Achievement Award; Nottingham High School Wall of Fame; Citizen of the Year Award from Temple Adath Yeshurun; M&T Career Achievement Award; Excellus Blue Cross/ Blue Shield Board Leadership Award; and the Syracuse Rotary Community Service Award.
In addition to the two children who run his former business, Charles has a daughter, Marilyn Barr. Marilyn is the UN Director of U.S. / Chinese Relations, and has lived in Beijing for 20 years.
When Charles (Charlie) Beach is not in a boardroom, he enjoys reading and playing golf.
To recommend someone with a stellar record of volunteering to be featured in this column contact Mel Rubenstein: [email protected] or call 315-682-7162.
