Jere N. Beauchamp

Jere was born February 26, 1942 in St. Clair, Michigan. After many moves, the family settled in Northern Michigan. He graduated high school in 1960 and attended the Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York the following year. This did not prove to be a good choice for Jere so he returned to East Lansing to study at Michigan State University. He worked at the MSU power plant and was able to put himself through school. He persevered and graduated in 1967. He started grad school majoring in experimental psychology at Michigan State with a grant from the National Science Foundation. In 1968, Jere was recruited by the Psychology Department at the State University of New York at Binghamton. While there, he earned a Master’s degree in computer systems from their school of advanced technology. In 1976 he accepted an engineering offer from E Systems, ECI Division in St. Petersburg, Florida. He then served Mitre Corporation from 1982 through 1989 before returning to what now is Raytheon as a system engineer. Finally, in 2007 Jere joined a consulting group for almost a year in Greenville, Texas. Jere co-authored several papers and even invented along the way. He became a member of ECI Authors and Inventors Club in 1978. From 1982-1989 he received recognition from Mitre serving Special Ops., Readiness Command, Joint Deployment, and Central Command. Also, he received Raytheon’s Best Paper award in 1998, Roving Sands in 1999, and Jelens Pioneer Award, a recipient of Popular Mechanics Design and Engineering award in 2000. Jere’s varied interests included computers. Since computers became commercially available in the mid 70s our home has never been without one or three or whatever. Jere enjoyed games in the beginning, designing fractals and collecting e-books. Jere liked working with wood and built many of the things around the house including the deck, beds, his desk, and mirror frames to name a few. Our neighbors would watch our driveway as piles of sawdust mounted from planning raw wood to begin his next project. Jere enjoyed collecting and shooting guns. He was a member of Wyoming Antelope Club and earned his concealed weapons permit. It was quite a sight after leaving the hospital the day after his first radiation treatment, he went shooting with his sons and their families at the club. Jere volunteered over a decade in Boy Scouts, rarely missing a committee, scout meeting or camp out. The troop was first to sign up for local highway cleanup, received an award from Colgate for continuing troop 340 flag planting events at Bay Pines VA National Cemetery. Even arranged a fund raiser cruise aboard the Britanis in 1988. Celebrating Jere’s life would not be complete without mentioning his overwhelming love for all his cocker spaniels. The first arrived in 1966 and three more beautiful puppies in the early 90s. What was really enjoyable and humorous were all the stories that the family would generate by giving human attributes to the dogs that we all loved too much. Our four years of retirement were also very busy. We worked a little on our home in Florida, we traveled to Michigan and Nevada to visit family and we purchased a house in Tellico Plains, Tennessee. We worked on this house about six months before returning to Florida. In summary, Jere wanted more time at the end of his life, but he lived life to the fullest. Rest assured; he did his very best. He is survived by his wife of 46 years, Linda, son Paul and wife Pamela, son Michael and wife Kersten, son Peter, grandchildren Veronica, Stephen, Gillian, and Amelia, sister Jeanne Adwani, father-in-law, Dr. Jack Michie, two brother-in-laws, three sister-in-laws, numerous cousings, nieces, nephews, aunts and uncles. Jere’s memorial service was held at Martin Luther Chapel, East Lansing, Michigan, where we were married in 1966. Interment is at Mount Rest Cemetery in St. Johns, Michigan. In Lieu of flowers, please consider donating to: American Cancer Society PO Box 22718 Oklahoma, OK 73123-1718 1-800-227-2345 Suncoast Hospice Foundation 5771 Roosevelt Boulevard Clearwater, FL 33760 727-467-7423