William Howard Beasley III Professorship in the Graduate School of Business

The William Howard Beasley III Professorship in the Graduate School of Business was established to attract outstanding leaders from industry, government, and education who have internationally recognized academic and professional credentials to The University of Texas at Austin. As Beasley Professorship recipients, their mandate is to develop Dr. Beasley’s concept of a multidisciplinary approach to problem solving. This endowment allows the study of economics, law, political science, liberal arts, and entrepreneurship to be incorporated into the curricula, adding a new and broader dimension to the graduate business education program.

William Howard Beasley III, formerly chairman and chief executive officer of Lone Star Technologies, Inc., was born on October I, 1946, in Dallas, Texas. After graduating from Highland Park High School in 1964, he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and English from Duke University in 1968 and continued his education at The University of Texas at Austin, receiving a master’s in accounting and a doctorate in finance and law.

Upon graduation from The University of Texas at Austin with a PhD in 1971, Dr. Beasley served as assistant to U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Charles Walker and Treasury Secretaries John Connally, George Shultz, and William Simon. In 1973, while serving as special assistant to Treasury Secretary Shultz, he led a blue-ribbon panel that directed the resolution of the Penn Central Railroad and Lockheed financial crises. Dr. Beasley also served for two years as director of the Republican staff for the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.

Dr. Beasley left the government sector in 1975 to become special assistant to Ben Heineman, head of Chicago-based Northwest Industries, a $2.5 billion diversified manufacturing and service company. Three years later, he became vice-chairman of Velsicol Chemical Corporation, one of Northwest’s major operating subsidiaries. In 1980, Dr. Beasley was named president and chief executive officer of Velsicol. He was elected vice-chairman of Northwest Industries in 1983, and in 1984, at age 37, was named president and chief operating officer. The following year, Dr. Beasley led a spinoff of Lone Star Steel (LSS) from Northwest Industries, and became chairman and chief executive officer of LSS’s parent, Lone Star Technologies, Inc., a post he held until illness forced his retirement in 1989.

A trustee of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and a member of the board of trustees for Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Dr. Beasley was also a director of Centel Corporation, AON Corporation, The Acorn Fund, and Wingate Partners. Additionally, he was chairman of the advisory board for the Center for Corporate Economics and Strategy at Duke University and served on the advisory council for the College and Graduate School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin.

In 1984, The University of Texas at Austin presented Dr. Beasley with two awards: Outstanding Young Texas Ex Award and, from the College of Business Administration, the Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Dr. Beasley was featured in Business Week in 1985 (1S a business leader whose achievements had a significant impact on the economy and conduct of American business. The 1985 Register of America’s New Leadership Class, published by Esquire, also featured him as one of the top seventeen leaders in business and industry. Dr. Beasley was an active member of the Dallas Chapter of the Young Presidents Organization, the Economic Club of Chicago, the Union League Club of Chicago, the Commercial Club of Chicago, and the Petroleum Club of Dallas. He also served on both the board of directors and the executive committee of the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations.

William Howard Beasley III died of lymphoma-related pneumonia on November 1, 1990. His legacy includes a life that demonstrated the highest standards of personal integrity, academic accomplishment, and public service. He is survived by his wife, Jean Childers Beasley, two sons, William Howard Beasley IV and Scott Childers Beasley, and a daughter, Elizabeth Anne Beasley.