Francis A. Beane

Francis Albert Beane, age 87, of Little Rock, departed this life on August 31, 2017. Francis was born in Philadelphia, Pa. and raised in Atlantic City, N.J. He graduated from Our Lady Star of the Sea grammar school, and Atlantic City High School. While in high school, he worked evenings & weekends plus in the summer months seven full days a week, first as a clerk in a delicatessen and then as a sandwich & salad person in order to accumulate funds to attend college. Francis attended Drexel Institute of Technology (now Drexel University) in Philadelphia, Pa., securing a Bachelor's of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. Drexel was a co-op college of five years where you go to school six months and work in industry for six months. Francis worked at Trent Inc. in Philadelphia designing electrical heat furnaces. It took Francis six years to complete his BS degree as he came down with the measles in his freshman years which threw him back a year but this helped him accumulate finances to pay for his education. While in college, he was a member and secretary of Drexel's Chess team which won many tournaments in the Philadelphia area. Upon graduation he started work with Westinghouse Electric Corporation. After being on their training program for six months at Columbus, Ohio, Bridgeport, Conn., Newark N.J., Pittsburg, Pa. and Bloomfield, N.J., he settled down in the Lamp Division in Bloomfield, N.J. as a development engineer on Mercury Vapor Lamps in January 1955. One year later he was drafted into the US Army Chemical Corp where he served as a true engineer at Ft. Detrick, Md. which was the USA Biological Warfare Laboratory where all the new germs were developed and tested. Following discharge, Francis returned to Westinghouse in Bloomfield, only this time as a development engineer on Incandescent Lamps. Besides developing new lamp types, this also involved trouble shooting problems at the numerous plants around the USA. He was very active in the New Jersey Section of the Illuminating Engineering Society going thru all the chairs including president. Francis taught Illuminating Engineering courses for his section. Francis was a member of the Toastmaster 2345 section holding almost all of the officer's positions. Francis was a member of the Westinghouse Chess Club, here too, being secretary and active player. He was also secretary and player on the Westinghouse Bowling Team, but here he held up the league being in the bottom position. Francis held a Professional Engineer's license in New Jersey and in Arkansas. In 1976 Westinghouse decentralized engineering and Francis transferred to Little Rock, Ark. in the same position he held in New Jersey. In mid-1991, Francis' job was eliminated so he took early retirement. Shortly thereafter, he really began to work volunteering for many positions at Christ the King Catholic Church. Francis became a Minister to the Sick for the Homebound, going around the parish to numerous locations on weekends taking Holy Communion to those people. He became Sacristan at morning Masses & a couple of Masses on weekends. He served as Lector and Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion and became the Minister Coordinator, scheduling over 250 people for the various ministries on weekends. He was involved with his church's exercise program, never missing a day until his heart attack on his 75th birthday. Then he had to go to a more vigorous exercise program. Francis remained a bachelor all his life, living with his parents until they died in 1981. Together they traveled to 49 states and most of the providences of Canada; most vacations lasted four full weeks. To show for this was over 22,000 photography slides. Francis was an active stamp collector until late years. Then the computer took over a lot of his time. It seemed to Francis that his education would never end. He was a great reader. He enjoyed his hour of Adoration in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel at CTK in the early hours of the morning. He always kept saying that "I thought you would have plenty of time when you retired but I seem to have less". A Rosary service will be 6:00 p.m. today (Friday), September 1, at 6 p.m. at Christ the King Catholic Church, 4000 N. Rodney Parham Rd., Little Rock 72212. Mass of Christian Burial will be 10 a.m., Saturday, September 2, at the church with Monsignor Francis I. Malone as Celebrant. Interment will follow to Pinecrest Memorial Park. Online guestbook is available at ww.griffinleggetthealeyroth.com.