Memorial Award Established To Honor Longtime Cal Poly Music Professor George Beatie

A scholarship endowment has been established at Cal Poly in honor of Music Professor Emeritus George Clarke Beatie, who died in 1999.

“The endowment was created as a way to honor George’s memory and to encourage Cal Poly music students to actively pursue that important field,” said Bob Alberti, a Cal Poly alumnus and friend of Beatie.

Funds from the George Clarke Beatie Memorial Award will benefit an outstanding student preparing for the field of music education. The Cal Poly Music Department faculty will select awardees from time to time according to standards currently being developed.

The award itself will be modest but is expected to offer an important boost for the student recipient, according to Alberti.

An initial grant of $1,500, plus a partial match from the Music Department, brings the award to within $1,000 of the required $3,000 goal. The scholarship endowment was created with the help of Professor Clifton Swanson, chair of Cal Poly’s Music Department, and many Cal Poly music alumni.

“George Beatie’s former students plan to support the fund,” Alberti said. “Friends of the university and supporters of music education are also invited to help support the award.”

“Beatie was known as a tireless volunteer in every community he touched, and his efforts in music education at Cal Poly and in San Luis Obispo County are legendary,” Alberti said. “He was as beloved in Atascadero for his wide-ranging community work with such agencies as the Community Band, Historical Society, Zoological Society and Youth Task Force as he was among the generations of Cal Poly students that he mentored as a teacher, as a faculty advisor to the Blue Key National Honor Society and in countless other activities. Beatie taught at Cal Poly from 1959 until 1994.

“George was my close, personal friend and mentor, who brought me back to active involvement in music performance after decades of inactivity,” said Alberti, who helped launch the Beatie memorial fund. “I’ll always be grateful to him for stretching me to do my best in so many ways.”

“Donors who elect to support a fully endowed award in honor of Beatie will know they are contributing to the enrichment of music education for future generations of Cal Poly students,” Alberti said.

Contact: Jo Ann Lloyd (805) 756-1511