PAUL BEEM (1931): Beem was a football-basketball-track letterman during his prep playing days, but was best noted for his gridiron achievements. He was named an all-state end by the Chicago American after playing a key role on Mattoon's 8-0-1 team in 1930. The lone blemish to the record was a tie game against Urbana.
Beem attended DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind., where he was elected captain of the freshman football team and threw the javelin on the track team. It was the last year he was involved in athletics.
"He transferred to Illinois and due to his heavy academic load gave up sports," says Omer Macy, a former team- mate of Beem's at MHS. "He majored in physics and chemistry."
Macy recalls that he, Beem, Paul Schafer, Howard Johnson and Duane Purvis formed MHS starting five in basketball in 1930-31 and "had a fabulous team" before the latter four "all graduated at mid- semester."
Macy added, "I think it could have been one of the best
Paul Beem
basketball teams Mattoon has ever had until those four
graduated. Beem was one of the key players."
Beem taught and coached one year at Hindsboro following graduation from Illinois before landing a position with Western Cartridge as its chief ballistician in the Nuclear Reactor Manufacturing
facility. He eventually moved into the space industry as a "quality control manager for RCA's entire eastern test range at Patrick Air Force Base and Cape Canaveral," according to Macy's research.
Beem, who married Jessie Lou Conard, a former MHS cheerleader, is now retired from RCA and is teaching at a graduate school in Melbourne, Fla., where he lives.
PAUL BEEM (1931): Beem was a football-basketball-track letterman during his prep playing days, but was best noted for his gridiron achievements. He was named an all-state end by the Chicago American after playing a key role on Mattoon's 8-0-1 team in 1930. The lone blemish to the record was a tie game against Urbana.
Beem attended DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind., where he was elected captain of the freshman football team and threw the javelin on the track team. It was the last year he was involved in athletics.
"He transferred to Illinois and due to his heavy academic load gave up sports," says Omer Macy, a former team- mate of Beem's at MHS. "He majored in physics and chemistry."
Macy recalls that he, Beem, Paul Schafer, Howard Johnson and Duane Purvis formed MHS starting five in basketball in 1930-31 and "had a fabulous team" before the latter four "all graduated at mid- semester."
Macy added, "I think it could have been one of the best
Paul Beem
basketball teams Mattoon has ever had until those four
graduated. Beem was one of the key players."
Beem taught and coached one year at Hindsboro following graduation from Illinois before landing a position with Western Cartridge as its chief ballistician in the Nuclear Reactor Manufacturing
facility. He eventually moved into the space industry as a "quality control manager for RCA's entire eastern test range at Patrick Air Force Base and Cape Canaveral," according to Macy's research.
Beem, who married Jessie Lou Conard, a former MHS cheerleader, is now retired from RCA and is teaching at a graduate school in Melbourne, Fla., where he lives.
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