GA06011

Longtime PC(USA) leader Josiah Beeman dead at 70

by Jerry L. Van Marter

BIRMINGHAM, June 15 — Josiah Beeman, a well-known leader in both political and Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) circles for many years, died June 14 in Falls Church, Va. He was 70.

Beeman, a native of San Francisco, attended Reed College in Portland, Ore., and San Francisco State University. His career moved back and forth between government and church. From 1961-1964 he was director of education for the Northern California Council of Churches. He then served as administrative assistant to U.S. Congressman Philip Burton for three years before serving two terms in the California State Assembly.

In 1970, Beeman became director of the Washington office of the then United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, a position he held for five years. He returned to government service as director for the Democratic Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Beeman served many elected positions in the PC(USA): the Advisory Council on Church and Society, 1965-1969; the General Assembly Council, 1983-1989, including a stint as chair in 1988-1989; and chair of the Mission Design Committee that designed the new structure for the reunited PC(USA) in 1987.

He was a General Assembly commissioner in 1958 and again in 1978, when he chaired the Assembly Committee on Ordination and Homosexuals. In 1990, he was an unsuccessful candidate for General Assembly moderator.

For many years until his death, Beeman was active in Presbyterian-Catholic cooperation in Northern Ireland.

He was an elder in Falls Church (Va.) Presbyterian Church after many years as a member of Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C.