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Over the course of his five decades as an educator, Dr. Dan Beach estimates he’s taught more than 12,000 students.

And yet, it’s no exaggeration to say he’s given each of his pupils plenty of thought.

As Beach brought his storied 50-year tenure at Dominican University to a close this year, his dedication to meeting the needs of his students remains one of his many admirable traits as an educator.

“When I design a course I’m teaching, one of the things I keep in mind is, ‘What would I want from a professor if I was on the other side of the desk?’” Beach said. “That’s really my guiding principle in teaching and designing a class: considering how would I want to be taught and how would I want information presented to me.”

Beach formally retired from his duties as a full-time professor of psychology at the end of the 2024-25 academic year. But while he no longer has administrative duties to keep up with, Beach isn’t done teaching. He taught courses online over the summer and is even instructing a couple of classes during the fall and spring semesters this year.

‘The longer I stayed, the more it felt like home’

Dan Beach’s illustrious career in teaching found its origin story in 1974 at a meeting of the Illinois Psychological Association in downtown Chicago. It was there that he met Sr. Maristella Goebel, OP, a Rosary College “powerhouse” who at the time was the department chair of the school’s recently developed psychology program.

Beach took Goebel up on her offer to join Rosary as an adjunct faculty member teaching evening classes. After a brief stint doing that, a full-time position became available and, as Beach likes to say, “the rest is history.”

From there, Rosary’s psychology program “took off like a rocket,” Beach said. Within 10 years it was the No. 1 major among women on campus and shortly thereafter became the most popular in arts and science as well.

“It’s a wonderful discipline,” Beach said. “People like to learn about why people are the way they are.”

Beach also began his Rosary days as the institution’s first director of special education, helping the bachelor’s and master’s programs gain accreditation. He played a key part in the forming of the School of Education as well.

After a handful of years, Beach “committed entirely to psychology,” he said, and soon envisioned River Forest as more than an opening act for his career.

“The longer I stayed, the more it felt like home,” he said.

A builder at heart

As he helped advance the psychology department, Beach worked closely with Norman Carroll, a former provost and professor at Dominican, to develop the university’s School of Social Work. He was also the first dean of the College of Health Sciences, where he was intimately involved in starting Dominican’s master’s programs in physician assistant studies and dietetics, as well as the undergraduate program in nursing.

“Building those various programs is what I take a great deal of pride in,” Beach said. “I got to build some very important elements of Dominican University.”

Outside of his career as a professor, Beach finds great joy in spending time with his family and honing his skills as a seasoned woodworker. It’s a fitting hobby for someone who’s been the craftsperson behind so much at Dominican.

His legacy can be found in the mission-style crosses that hang in many of Parmer Hall’s rooms. Each were crafted by Beach using trees that were cut down to build the state-of the-art facility in the early 2000s.

The Dominican community was able to offer Beach a special sendoff earlier this year when he was honored with the Hugh McElwain Distinguished Service Award.

“The fact that it was named after Hugh, a dear colleague and a dear friend, made it all the more meaningful,” Beach noted. “It was great to have the opportunity to express my gratitude publicly for all the years of support that made my life at Dominican University so wonderful. It’s a very special place.”

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