Edward Beardsley

1935 - 2023

Edward Beardsley
May 18, 1935 - August 13, 2023
Bridgewater, Virginia - Edward H. "Ed" Beardsley, a beloved history professor, civil rights activist, father, husband, brother, and friend to many, died on August 13, 2023 at the age of 88, in Bridgewater, Virginia.
A memorial service will be held for him at 3 PM Tuesday, August 22 at Rutledge Chapel on the Horseshoe, at the University of South Carolina.
Beardsley taught at the University of South Carolina for 32 years, from 1966 to 1998.
While teaching history and opening the minds of young people to the world was his passion, Beardsley actually began his career with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering and a job in sales.
Graduating from the University of Florida in 1953, Beardsley worked for several years with chemical manufacturer Rohm and Haas, before realizing that the sales world was not for him. History and academia were his true callings, so he returned to graduate school, earning a masters and doctoral degree in American history from the University of Wisconsin in 1966.
That same year he joined the history department faculty at the University of South Carolina, going on to become a favorite professor of many students and earn several teaching awards: the Donald Russell (now, Amoco) award, the Scudder Prize, the Mungo teaching award, and the Daughters of the American Revolution history award.
Dr. Beardsley will be remembered for his dynamic impersonations of historical figures - Teddy Roosevelt, Benjamin Franklin, Woodrow Wilson, and especially Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Dressed in period costume and using props like a replica of FDR's wheelchair, Beardsley brought these historical men and their times to life.
He took his "one-man shows" to audiences beyond the USC campus, performing in 25 different states, including at "The Little White House," FDR's second home and final resting place in Warm Springs, Georgia and the Chautauqua Institution in western New York.
Professor Beardsley also published three books dealing with the history of American science and medicine. The last, A History of Neglect. Health Care of Blacks and Mill Workers in the 20th Century South, received the Gustavus Meyers award as an outstanding book on racial discrimination.
Along with teaching, Beardsley was involved in the civil rights movement. Originally from the deep South, he was awakened to the nation's deep racial inequalities. Upon earning his PhD at Wisconsin, Beardsley said he returned to the South with a whole new outlook on Southern culture and politics. In his words, "joining the faculty at USC was about more than just the teaching of history." He joined the growing struggle for equality for Black Americans.
In the early 1970s Beardsley served as state president of the South Carolina Council for Human Rights, a moderate organization which helped foster racial integration. He also taught classes at historical black colleges Benedict College and Allen University, often inviting Black students to his home in the late 1960s, which made him unpopular with some of his neighbors.
His commitment to racial equality meant educating his own children in South Carolina public schools. Beardsley was committed to integration in an era characterized by fear and "white flight" to private schools. As a public school parent, Ed was a tireless volunteer worker and leader in the PTAs and booster groups at Bradley, Fairwold and WJ Keenan High School.
Born in Jacksonville, Florida on May 18, 1935, Ed Beardsley was the first child of Edward H. Beardsley, Jr., and Eugenia Taylor Beardsley. Even though his father was able to keep his job with Sun Oil, Ed says arriving in this world in the middle of the Great Depression deeply shaped his outlook on life and especially economics.
As he puts it, his father's lectures on the value of the dollar turned him into a lifelong, "anti-consumer" whose thriftiness drove his children "quite mad."
Ed Beardsley had a deep love for family, beginning with his parents and his sister Carolyn. He often spoke nostalgically of an idyllic childhood growing up on a friendly, neighbor-filled street in Jacksonville in the 1940s and 50s.
He shared his enthusiasm for life and learning with his three children : Eleanor, Lewis and Tyler, whom he raised with his first wife Geraldine Sudlow Beardsley White. They went on many trips, and lived in England twice during two of Ed's sabbatical terms. He instilled in his children a love of history and cinema, taking them to the classic films shown at the Russell House. And well before the era of Netflix and streaming, he brought home reels of classic films and projected them onto a sheet hung on the wall.
Ed was also a neighborhood favorite of the kids – orchestrating elaborate, homemade birthday games and pop-fly-catching contests in the street. He had a wonderful way with children and his grandchildren filled his life with joy in later years.
Ed was perhaps most at home with a good book, having a picnic, or taking a nap in a hammock at his parents' retirement home in the mountains of Penrose, NC or reading and watching the surf in a rocker on the porch at Holden Beach.
In 2002 Ed married Sara Brunk Beardsley, getting a second chance at love. Sara and Ed were married 20 years, and spent many happy moments together in Columbia, and traveling in the US and to Europe. They moved to Bridgewater, Virginia six years ago to be closer to family.
He believed in helping those with less and giving back to the community. Ed was a member of Rotary and the "Golden K" Kiwanis in Columbia. He also volunteered in many places; he helped elementary school children in underserved schools in Columbia, and also worked as a greeter and assistant in the emergency department of Lexington Medical Center. He was a kind, big-hearted man who tried to leave this world, a better place. He loved life and had a smile ready for everyone.
Ed leaves to cherish his memory, his wife Sara; his dear sister Carolyn Meigs; his son Lewis (Erica Swecker) Beardsley; his son Tyler Beardsley; his daughter Eleanor (Ulysse Gosset) Beardsley; grandchildren Zoe and Elias Beardsley and Maxime Beardsley Gosset; Sara's children Sandy McElveen, Meg (Danny) Riddle, Clay McElveen; grandson Callan Riddle and many dear friends.
In his own words, "What a wonderful life he had and how he hated to write finis, not just to life but also to the sweet and joyful memories of it that he always carried with him. They embraced youth, friends, happy and meaningful experiences, and especially love for his parents. What would he not have given to revisit them for an hour of childhood, like Thornton Wilder's "Emily" from his play 'Our Town.'"
Memorial contributions in honor of Ed may be made to one of his favorite charities: Doctors Without Borders or Saint Judes Children's Research Hospital.
https://donate.doctorswithoutborders.org
https://www.stjude.org