(Ted) Bean’s About It

Civil engineering alumnus credits alma mater with launching successful, long-lived career

Theodore T. 'Ted' Bean and family.

Theodore T. ‘Ted’ Bean and family.

Ask Theodore T. “Ted” Bean (BSCE 62) what has been the key to his long, diverse and successful career and without hesitation, the University of Mississippi alumnus will tell you that it’s his alma mater.

“I would not be where I am today without the education I gained there,” said Bean, principal systems engineer at SAIC. “I can’t recall a single professor that wasn’t someone I couldn’t learn from. They were all good, but Dr. Sam Deleeuw was my favorite.”

Bean is paying his respects to Deleeuw in a concrete manner by contributing to the university’s Samuel L. Deleeuw Civil Engineering Endowment.

“Dr. Deleeuw was instrumental in getting me focused,” Bean said. “I have a lot to thank him for.”

A native of East St. Louis, Ill., Bean came to Ole Miss after a good friend and a fellow football player in high school, Bob Benton, was offered a scholarship at UM. Benton, who was an All-American in high school and all-SEC at Ole Miss, convinced Bean that he could play football for the Rebels as well.

“That is why I chose Ole Miss,” he said. “Unfortunately, when I met Johnny Vaught, my marriage as a freshman precluded me from playing for the team. He wouldn’t allow his players to be married until they were seniors.”

Putting collegiate athletics behind him, Bean refocused on his academics. The engineering school appealed to him for several reasons.

“It was very well-organized and we were motivated and encouraged by the faculty to learn,” Bean said. “I liked their honor system. We were trusted to do our own work and take exams without faculty oversight.”

An enlisted Marine attending the university, Bean found his UM experience paralleled his Marine training, where integrity and commitment drove the core values. Moreover, the Naval Enlisted Scientific Education Program oversight by Navy ROTC ensured that he took many extra courses above the minimum required in his chosen engineering field.

“These extra courses in language, history, sociology and government were all above and beyond what was required in the engineering department,” Bean said. “I had to attend summer school every summer. These extra courses offered us the opportunity to meet, learn with and socialize with students from other majors, broadening our learning experience.”

Deleeuw joined the UM engineering faculty during Bean’s junior year and taught FORTRAN. Bean found this, coupled with his association with the American Society of Civil Engineers, very rewarding.

“Dr. Deleeuw once asked me to prepare a paper for delivering at an ASCE meeting,” he said. “It forced me to start working on my delivery skills, which I have worked on over my career, and I am much better now than I was then.”

Bean was also asked if he would help students in Deleeuw’s FORTRAN lab and to prepare a program to estimate the cutting and filling required to turn a creek into a smooth-flowing waterway. “I never knew if the computer program was used, but it really helped me focus my mathematics skills and engineering logic,” he said.

Deleeuw’s encouragement of Bean to learn and use what he had learned to solve problems has rewarded Bean throughout his career.

Deleeuw saw Bean’s potential as a student and somehow felt he would do well after graduation.

“I remember Ted was always so inquisitive and eager to learn,” Deleeuw said. “Anything I challenged him to do, he accepted with great enthusiasm and commitment. I figured those qualities, in addition to his problem-solving skills, would serve him well in life.”

Bean acknowledged two other members of the engineering school as having greatly impacted him.

“Dr. George and Dr. Karl Brenkert (former dean of engineering) were also two I thought highly of for their guidance and motivating techniques,” he said. “They made us want to learn and to have pride in our progress.”

After Bean graduated from Ole Miss and served a tour in Vietnam, the Marine Corps sent him to the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. There, he obtained a master’s degree in operations research-systems analysis.

“After I retired from the Marine Corps, the MITRE Corp. sent me to George Washington University to work on my doctorate in operations research, but management tasks got in the way and I wasn’t able to complete it,” Bean said. “These studies set me on a course to specialize in systems acquisition for the Marine Corps, which I still do to this day.”

Bean has received many awards and honors over his career, including membership in Chi Epsilon and Tau Beta Pi, awards from the Military Operations Research Society for technical skills and leadership, multiple leadership awards from his corporations and combat ribbons while on active duty.

“My most cherished award is a Certificate of Accomplishment from the Commandant of the Marine Corps for my technical and leadership contributions to a Marine Corps system acquisition while on active duty,” Bean said. “The CMC is the highest ranking officer in the Corps, and to have him formally recognize my efforts is most rewarding.”

Bean is married to the former Kathy Brown, a lawyer for the Office of the Secretary of Defense. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia, William and Mary College and Georgetown University. The Beans adopted two children from Russia in 1995. Morgan attends Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center in Staunton, Va., and Trent attends Northern Virginia Community College.

“Trent is planning to transfer to Ole Miss,” Bean said. “We visited the campus two summers ago and he loved it.”

Bean is in the process of retiring and in training to become a docent at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in northern Virginia.

“That will be my principal hobby, along with improving my golf game and reading,” he said. “I’m looking forward to all three, as well as attending as many of the Washington Nationals baseball games as possible. I also attend several Rebel games at a D.C. sports bar with Ole Miss alumni and we see good things for the Rebels coming this year.”

Bean entered the university the same year as James Meredith integrated it with his enrollment. While admitting there have been challenges, Bean said his alma mater has continued to make him proud.

“The reaction to a black student on campus startled me, as I had never been in a segregated society,” Bean said. “But Chancellor Williams led us into an integrated world, followed by a speech by Robert Kennedy on campus at the invitation of the law school during my senior year. This leadership helped heal these wounds, and I couldn’t be prouder to be an Ole Miss alumnus. We have come a long way.”