Richard J Beamish

Life and career

Beamish was born the son of Francis Allen and Mary Loftus. Francis Beamish had served a term as mayor of Scranton, and was owner and editor of the Scranton Free Press.

Beamish attended the National School of Elocution in Ontario and the newly founded St. Thomas College in Scranton, where he also served as the football coach beginning in 1893. He was admitted to the bar and appointed Assistant District Attorney in Lackawanna County in 1890, at the age of 21. After three years, he became editor of the Scranton Free Press, and later was editor and journalist for several Philadelphia newspapers. He also taught and coached the debate team at St. Thomas College.

In 1908, Beamish was involved in George Gray's campaign for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency, which Gray lost to William Jennings Bryan. He then switched to the Republican Party, though he would later realign himself with the Democrats.

During his years as a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Beamish covered the 1925 Scopes Trial, serving as chairman of the press committee.

In 1926, he was appointed by Governor Gifford Pinchot to the state's Public Service Commission. During Pinchot's second term, in 1930, Beamish was appointed Secretary of the Commonwealth. He resigned in 1934 and returned to newspaper work so as to support Democratic candidates.

In 1937, Governor George H. Earle appointed Beamish as chief counsel to the state's Public Utilities Commission, the newly reconstituted and named former Public Service Commission, for a six-year term. During the war, he proposed banning college football.

Beamish suffered from tuberculosis in his early life. He was pronounced cured after two years, and in later years organized the International Tuberculosis Exposition and Congress in Washington, D.C.

Beamish died of a heart attack on October 1, 1945, at his home in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.