Beasley Awards

Background

The Beasley Award is given each year to an outstanding manager of one or more of the companies with which Wingate is involved. The award is given in honor of Howard Beasley, who was an Advisory Board Director for Wingate and who died of Lymphoma in 1990.

The individual recipients of this award are chosen based on criteria which Howard himself looked for in his managers during a twenty-year career as head of two major corporations:

• Demonstrated leadership
• Tenacity in dealing with challenging issues
• Creativity in solving “impossible” problems
• Courage in confronting challenges
• Integrity and tough-mindedness
• Ability to focus on long-term objectives

Recipients have included a range of positions:

• Regional Sales Manager
• Customer Service Manager
• Chief Financial Officer
• Director of Purchasing
• Manager of Safety
• Plant Manager

Each recipient of the Beasley Award is recognized at the Wingate Annual Meeting, and the General Partners of Wingate make a donation to the school or charity of the recipient’s choice. The General Partners have made donations of almost $300,000 in honor of the Beasley Award recipients.

About William Howard Beasley III

William Howard Beasley III, formerly chairman and chief executive officer of Lone Star Technologies, Inc., was born on October 1, 1946, in Dallas, Texas. After graduating from Highland Park High School in 1964, he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and english from Duke University in 1968 and continued his education at The University of Texas at Austin, receiving a master’s in accounting and a doctorate in finance and law.

Upon graduation from the University of Texas at Austin with a Ph.D. in 1971, Dr. Beasley served as assistant to U.S. Treasury Secretaries John Connally, George Shultz, and William Simon and to Deputy Treasury Secretary Charls Walker. In 1973, while serving as special assistant to Tresury Secretary Shultz, he led a blue-ribbon panel that directed the resolution of the Penn Central Railroad and Lockheed financial crises. Dr. Beasley also served for two years as director of the Republican staff for the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.

Dr. Beasley left the government sector in 1975 to become special assistant to Ben Heineman, head of Chicago based Northwest Industries, a $2.5 billion diversified manufacturing and service company. Three years later, he became vice-chairman of Velsicol Chemical Corporation, one of Northwest’s major operating subsidiaries. In 1980, Dr. Beasely was named president and chief operating officer. The following year, Dr. Beasley led a spin-off of Lone Star Steel (LSS) from Northwest Industries, and became chairman and chief executive officer of LSS’s parent, Lone Star Technologies, Inc., a post he held until illness forced his retirement in 1989.

A trustee of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and a member of the board of trustees for Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Dr. Beasley was also a director of Wingate Partners, Centel Corporation, The Acorn Fund, and Aon Corporation. Additionally, he was chairman of the advisory board for the Center of Corporate Economics and Strategy at Duke University and served on the advisory council for the College and Graduate School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin.

In 1984, The University of Texas at Austin presented Dr. Beasley with two awards: Outstanding Young Texas Ex Award and, from the College of Business Administration, the Distinguished Alumnus Award. Dr. Beasley was featured in Business Week in 1985 as a business leader whose achievements had a significant impact on the economy and conduct of American business. The 1985 Register of America’s New Leadership Class, published by Esquire, also featured him as one of the top seventeen leaders in business and industry.

William Howard Beasley III died of lymphoma-related pneumonia on November 1, 1990. His legacy includes a life that demonstrated the highest standards of personal integrity, academic accomplishment, and public service.

Recipients