Pax Beale

1929 - 2016

Pax Beale

1929 - 2016

Oakland native Pax Beale passed away at home in San Francisco surrounded by family on May 4, 2016, due to cancer. He was 86. An entrepreneur and lifelong athlete, Pax's forward-thinking vision helped shape the Bay Area running boom and awareness of the link between fitness and health.

Pax graduated from Oakland High School and UC Berkeley and carried an unwavering loyalty to these roots and the lifelong friendships he formed. He began his career at Dow Chemical before launching Beale Container Corporation in Southern California in his early 30s. With offices throughout the West, the manufacturing firm led a breakthrough in plastics technology by competing in price with paper containers and was the first of Pax's many successful business ventures.

Pax returned to the Bay Area where he founded and owned several hospitals, same-day surgery and outpatient centers, and a wholesale pharmaceutical company over the next few decades. Unlimited by conventional thinking and always creating new ways of doing things, Pax's vision would challenge the medical establishment's approach to delivering quality, affordable healthcare in numerous medical arenas. His model, which today is ubiquitous, was considered radical and even brazen at the time, particularly because he used marketing and advertising when it was nonexistent in healthcare.

Throughout his life, Pax attributed his success and longevity to fitness. He was a high school and college athlete in football, basketball, and track and field and a proud member of Pappy's Boys Cal Bears football team. When an injury sidelined him, Pax joined the Cal boxing team. He went on to become the U.S. Air Force heavyweight champion, suffering his only loss when facing off with 1952 Olympic gold medal winner Ed Sanders.

In the 1960s, Pax co-founded one of the first run for fun jogging clubs in the U.S. bringing together runners of all ages and genders. He applied his "total commitment" philosophy to running and later to open water swimming as a lifetime member of the Dolphin Club. He ran more than 30 marathons and set the bar for endurance with a run from Death Valley to the top of Mt. Whitney in the intense August heat and a round-trip swim to Alcatraz one December night to celebrate his 50th birthday.

Pax discovered his ultimate calling when he began strength training in his 50s to relieve back pain he endured since a childhood injury. He created BackPax, a back rehab program, based on his positive results. Pax often said weight training had become the "tail wagging the dog" because it propelled him to compete in bodybuilding. He and his wife, Sophie, won numerous titles and traveled to Eastern Europe and Russia as guest posers.

Body for the Ages, Pax's heart health program, evolved from his determination to recover from five-way coronary bypass surgery at the age of 61. After surgery, Pax was a self-described "heart cripple" with only 25% maximum heart efficiency. Four years later, he had normal cardiac function according to his doctors. He reversed his heart disease through diet and his prescription method of weight-resistance training, which focused on elevating blood pressure in a controlled manner to condition and rehabilitate the heart. Pax's mission became to help others achieve the same vitality through Body for the Ages.

Pax believed almost anything was possible through the quality of one's efforts. His outlook and infinite capacity to live life to the fullest inspired many, as did his ability to walk into any room and make lifelong friends no matter what their circumstances. Pax continued to work out until his final weeks; his marathon heart served him well until the end.

Pax is survived by his great love, wife Sophie Taggart; daughter Lyndi Beale; stepson Jesse, and stepdaughter Brooke, her husband, and their two children—who all will hold his memory in their hearts forever. Pax's brother, pioneering eye surgeon Dr. John P. Beale, Jr., preceded him in death. Pax leaves a long list of extended family and friends, whom he cared about deeply. A celebration of his life is planned for family and friends.

Pax's commitment to heart health continues through an online program at www.bodyfortheages.org and the book he authored, Body for the Ages: From Heart Surgery to Bodybuilding Champion.