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Sharing Pitt Memories

A Full Life That's Taken Many Turns

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William G. Beck (A&S '72G):

I came to Pitt as a "flunk-out" from Carnegie Mellon University (then Carnegie Tech) in 1961. Pitt’s College of General Studies gave me a second chance; there I studied mathematics part-time in the evenings while earning a living. (To their credit, my parents said "about time.")

Eventually earning a BS in mathematics, I went on to earn one of the very first Master’s in Computer Science degrees in 1972 and then became a part-time instructor in the Pitt Computer Science Department. There, my biggest contribution was helping to keep Tony Dorsett eligible to play football, under Coach Johnny Majors. If you follow Pitt football at all, you will recall what happened in 1976. Pitt won the national championship!

After Pitt, I fell into an assistant professorship (computer science) at Duquesne University, where I met my best friend, business partner, and wife. She has an MBA from the Katz Graduate School of Business. Together, we operated a small software company for 33 years and raised a family. My full life has taken several other turns as I returned to school several more times and am now a Lutheran minister and mission developer. By the way, I did return to Carnegie Mellon to earn a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering.