When I think
of Ken Beachler, I come up with a single image.
Upon
entering Wharton Center on Michigan State University’s campus to attend a
concert, Ken was at the door to the Cobb Great Hall. He was always impeccably
dressed, had a wide gracious smile and welcomed one-and-all into “his”
house. Because he felt the Wharton Center
was, indeed, his house.
He knew most
by name and greeted each person as if he or she was the most important person
he had seen that day.
Beachler spent his entire life supporting, nurturing, performing, and selling the arts. At age 87, he died recently in his home. Ken was one of the greatest shapers of cultural life in the greater Lansing area.
