Beeman, Alice L.

Alice L. Beeman (1919–2003) was named in 1974 the first woman president of a national public relations association, the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), a position she held until 1978.

CASE represented a merger of the American College Public Relations Association and the American Alumni Council and a shift in emphasis from college publicity to a focus on fundraising and development. Today, CASE is the professional organization for those who work in alumni relations, communications, and development.

Beeman began her communication career as a reporter for the University of Texas News Service. Also, she held university relations positions at Vanderbilt University and the University of Michigan. During her 22 years at the University of Michigan, she established a new university publications office and served as director of the Office of Publications. She was General Director of the American Association of University Women (AAUW), Washington, DC, from 1969 to 1974.

Beeman was president of the American College of Public Relations Association in 1975 and was [Page 74]president of the AAUW Michigan chapter from 1955 to 1957.

She received her BJ in 1941 from the University of Texas; her L.L.D. at Central Methodist College; and her L.H.D. from Anderson-Broaddus College, 1973, and Boston University, 1978.

CASE honored Beeman by naming its annual research awards in her honor, recognizing outstanding theses, dissertations, and published scholarship on communications and education. Such research might include such areas as marketing, public relations, government relations, issues management, and institutional image enhancement. Awards are presented in two program areas—Outstanding Master's Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation and Outstanding Published Scholarship.

Former CASE President Peter McE. Buchanan repeated, upon her passing, Beeman's observation about the people of advancement in which she said, “To the degree that we convey our faith in education to others, we will be successful in our work of educational advancement” (“A legendary loss,” 2003, p. 53).