Husband Honors Wife with Endowed Professorship
After a lifetime of devotion to Loyola's School of Law, Bernard J. Beazley (LLB '50) has once again chosen the school as a beneficiary of his generosity. To honor his wife, Kathie, Beazley has given $2 million to fully endow a new chair in her name—the A. Kathleen Beazley ChairChild Law.
"We were blessed with a large family and share a mutual interest in doing things for younger children," says Mr. Beazley, member of the University's board of trustees. "The idea of endowing a chair in Kathie's name came to mind very quickly. In addition to our nine children, she was also a surrogate mother number of neighborhood kids." 
Mr. Beazley is the former general counsel and senior president of Dentsply International, one of the largest manufacturers of professional dental care products in the world. has served on Loyola's President's Advisory Council and is a current member of the Loyola University Chicago Society of the Shield, the University's planned giving society.
Professor Diane Geraghty, JD, director of Loyola's Civitas ChildLaw Center, has been named the first A. Kathleen Beazley Chair in Child Law. Geraghty has been a member of the Loyola faculty since 1977 and was the first to develop the nationally ranked ChildLaw Center. She also served as interim dean of the school and is on the board of directors of Maryville Academy, largest residential child-care facility in Illinois. Her work also includes leading research and policy efforts on behalf of the MacArthur Foundation and UNICEF.
There isn't a more deserving person in the country for this position and recognition," says David Yellen, JD, dean of the School of Law. "Diane is one of a small handful of national leaders in the area of child law. She's led the Civitas Center to its place of national and international prominence, is a superb teacher and mentor to students, and is an accomplished scholar." The Beazleys are some of the largest donors to Loyola's School of Law, having supported many programs over the years, including donating the largest single gift to the law school with $5 million to expand the nationally ranked Institute for Health Law and Policy, which now bears their name.
"Bernie is in the process of assisting in the transformation of the law school," says Yellen. "His endowment of the Institute for Health Law was overwhelming, and now, to make another gift of this magnitude to the Civitas ChildLaw Center is remarkable. It is a very meaningful way to honor his wife and will ensure her name will forever be associated with helping children."
The Beazleys met in grade school at St. Theodore's Parish on Chicago's South Side. After serving in the Army Air Corps during World War II, Beazley received a bachelor's degree from Loyola. The couple wed in 1948 during Beazley's first year of law school. "This will serve as a perpetual memorial to Kathie," says Beazley, "and will remind everyone of her lifelong interest in the welfare of children."