Jeffrey Scott Beck, 1962-2012

I was horrified to learn from the July/August 2013 issue of the University of Pennsylvania's Gazette alumni magazine that Jeffrey Scott Beck, one of my graduate school contemporaries, died last year. I tracked down an obit for Jeff here; the obit writer doesn't say what Jeff died from, but given his age (49) and that he passed away ... with his wife, his sister, his mother-in-law and close friends at his side, I suspect that the Big C was to blame.

Jeff and I both arrived at Penn in the Fall of 1984. Although we didn't take any first-year classes together, we were co-TAs for Chemistry 4 and Chemistry 54 during the Spring 1985 semester and during the afternoon lab sessions we chatted from time to time - I still have my copy of the Chem 4 textbook for that semester, the fourth edition of Chemical Principles. (The third Chem 4/54 TA, Deanna Johnson, left Penn shortly after her first year and I have no idea what happened to her.)

I can't claim to have known Jeff well, but I do have a few random remembrances of him that are worth jotting down.

• Jeff and I were both semi-regular patrons of the sadly long-gone Audrey's Pit Barbecue on 40^th Street.

• Jeff was a fan of female singer-songwriters - I remember him being pleasantly surprised that I had even heard of Joan Armatrading, Kate Bush, and Lene Lovich, let alone that I had heard any of their songs.

• Jeff was also a big Pink Floyd fan. He paid $400 to a scalper for two tickets to see Pink Floyd when it was touring for The Wall in 1980 or so - "During 'Mother' you could hear a pin drop," he informed me.

• Perhaps the strangest thing I knew about Jeff was that he loved the Meow Mix Theme: "I like chicken, I like liver, ..."

• I was never shy about telling everyone how much I disliked graduate school, and Jeff assumed that my dislike of graduate school extended to Philadelphia more generally. I corrected him. Actually, Jeff, there are some aspects of Philadelphia that I really like. His eyes lit up slightly. It's just that Penn isn't one of them. He smiled broadly.

Rest in peace, Jeff. If there's a heaven, I hope that they're piling the beef brisket, collard greens, and baked beans high for you up there.