Grant Eugene "Gene" Beckett

March 19, 1946 - December 19, 2009

Grant Eugene "Gene" Beckett, age 63, of S.R. 73, McDermott, Ohio, died 6:03 P.M. Saturday, December 19, 2009 at the Ohio State University Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

Gene Beckett was NADE President-elect 1994-95; NADE President 1995-96; longtime member of the Ohio Association for Developmental Education (OADE) and the National Association for Developmental Education; former President of OADE; member of the NADE 2010 Conference Planning Team. "Gene was an enthusiastic person and a moving force in the development of the OADE organization." Kathleen Buttermore, NADE 2010 Conference Chair.

In 1996, Dr. Gene Beckett (President of NADE) invited the presidents of other associations attending the conference to meet and discuss establishing a council representing developmental education and learning assistance organizations. The original idea as envisioned by Gene Beckett and Jim Melko (then Co-Chair of NADE’s Political Liaison Committee) was to bring organizations together to:

• Develop a political agenda for learning assistance and developmental education associations,
• Promote that agenda through political liaison activities, Establish a unified voice for the field,
• Provide a forum for improved communication among the various professional associations in the field,
• Provide a vehicle for the coordination of association activities,
• Promote cooperation among the various professional associations in the field.

The American Council of Developmental Education Associations (ACDEA) held its first organizational meeting at the February, 1996 conference of the National Association for Developmental Education (NADE) in Little Rock, Arkansas. ACDEA has been renamed and is now the Council of Learning Assistance and Developmental Education Associations (www.CLADEA.net). Though not as they initially envisioned it, Gene and Jim can be credited with being the impetus to create this important and much needed unifying organization for the field.

Gene was born March 19, 1946 in Portsmouth, Ohio, a son of the late Raymond and Ann Ehrlich Beckett. On August 22, 1998 he was united in marriage to Marian Fischels Beckett who survives. Also surviving are three children, Joseph Grant Beckett, Graceann Frances Beckett and Ethan Vincent Beckett, all at home, two brothers, Tony Beckett of Jermyn, Pa., and Rick Beckett of Portsmouth, Ohio, his former wife, Rebecca Folsom Parks, special friends, Rita Frye and Bruce Kelley, and special relatives, Greg Beckett and Phillip Ehrlich.

Gene graduated from High School in Wheatridge, Colorado, received his BA and MA in English, and his PhD in higher education. He was a former English and Spanish high school teacher, and was an administrator and associate professor of Developmental English at Shawnee State University.

He was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, the Portsmouth Sister City Committee, attended Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Otway, Ohio, and was a Navy veteran of the Viet Nam era.