Gerald Beatty ’43 is proud to claim five generations of Lafayette alumni in his family tree.
“My grandfather, Henry Beatty, was in the class of 1887,” he says. “He was one of the editors of the Melange, as well as a member of the football team. The team in his graduating year was quite memorable for its success. If you look up my grandfather in the alumni book you’ll see his broken nose and you can read back through the newspaper stories of how he finished out the game, despite his injury, the day that happened.”
The 1887 yearbook reports, “H.T. Beatty 1887 of Conshohocken, Pa., is one of the finest end runners in the country. He played three years, but won special distinction last season. Standing 5 feet 8½ inches high, and weighing 152 pounds, his well-knit, graceful form reminds one of the athletes that contended at the Olympian games. In his movement he is surprisingly quick, a fast runner and a sure tackler. To show that he has pluck, we need only refer to the fact that in a recent game when an opposing player brutally broke his nose, he continued playing, although the cartilage was far out of its proper place. Socially Mr. Beatty is very popular, and a general favorite wherever he is known.”
He was a charter member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity and class poet. After graduating, he earned a Ph.D. at NYU in 1898 and a doctorate of divinity from Lafayette in 1908, serving at First Presbyterian Church of Hoboken (N.J.) and as 1st Lieutenant and chaplain in World War I. He was the organizer and first president of the Good Government Club of Hoboken and author of A Marriage Souvenir. He married the former Jane Dumont.
Gerald’s father, Herbert Campbell Beatty ’19, was next at Lafayette. Like his father, he joined Delta Upsilon; he became a teacher. When Gerald, a Phillipsburg native, was ready to attend college, there was no question of where he would enroll.
“They called us ‘townies’ back then,” he says. “I never considered going elsewhere, but not because I lived locally. My choice arose from the great experiences of my family and because I knew the College would be top-notch in my pre-law major. My son, Michael Beatty ’70, felt the same way about his choice to study engineering at Lafayette.”
Gerald was a member of the Kirby Government and Law Society and Alpha Phi Omega, a service fraternity founded at Lafayette. He was a decorated soldier in World War II and worked as a Dixie Cup salesman.
The most recent Beatty generation to attend Lafayette includes two of Gerald’s grandsons, Richard Beatty ’08 and Jeffrey Beatty ’11.
“Richard got to spend his junior year in Washington and London in experiences I find unparalleled elsewhere,” says Gerald. “I expect Jeffrey to have an equally memorable four years.”
Gerald Beatty’s other relatives include great-uncles Ira Dumont 1876, Frederick Dumont 1889, who served as consul generate to Cuba and Ireland, Victor Dumont ’98, and Wayne Dumont 1892; uncle Harold Dumont Beatty 1912, who held the collegiate shotput record; and cousins Wayne Dumont II ’35, a Pennsylvania State Senator who made an unsuccessful run for governor, and John Dumont ’31.
Gerald married into a Lafayette tradition as well, including father-in-law Joseph Delos Reyes 1924; Harold Kressly ’34, uncle of his wife Josephine; James Rockwood Beers ’20, his grandsons Jeffrey and Richard’s great-uncle and a member of the infantry in World War I; and James Rockwood Beers Jr. ’50.
