By Dave Johnson
W&M Athletics
When Jean Beall started her job as business manager of the Tribe Club in 1977, she was immediately overwhelmed. So much so that after a particularly hectic day at the office, she came home in tears. Maybe, she told her husband this wasn't for her.
His advice: Stick with it for another week or two and re-evaluate. She agreed and ended up stepping down … 45 years later.
On Oct. 31, Beall worked her final day with the William & Mary Athletics Foundation (WMAF), the fundraising arm of William & Mary athletics. As one of the longest-tenured employees in the department's history, she leaves a pair size-9 running shoes that will be difficult to fill.
"Forty-five years is a long time to be at one place," said Beall, whose job title doesn't fully describe her role over the last four-plus decades. "But when you get here, you tend to want to stay. It's a great place to work.
"Looking back, I can't believe I've been here that long. But I've enjoyed what I've done and I feel like I've accomplished something."
Those accomplishments are being recognized. Although she's not a graduating student, Beall will be allowed to ring the Wren Bell at 4:15 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 11.
"I'm not going to ring it 45 times," she said. "As someone who works with math, I saw it as 45 years, ring it nine times, and each one ring is five years."
Beall also will be recognized during Saturday's home football game against Villanova and a reception will be held in her honor in the Jimmye Laycock Football Center immediately following the game. The event is open to the public and all interested in attending can RSVP by sending an email to Jasmine Hayes in the WMAF at: jmhayes02@wm.edu.
Her tenure at William & Mary spanned six presidents (Thomas Ashley Graves to Katherine A. Rowe) and six athletic directors (Ben Carnevale to Brian Mann).
"She's an institution," said Jim Ukrop, who, along with his wife Bobbie '61, has been an active and supporting alumnus since graduating in 1960. "She's been there since almost the very beginning, I think, of any fundraising program we had for athletics.
"She was the go-to person forever and ever. If you wanted to get something done, you'd go to Jean."
Which is a big reason why in 2010 Beall was named an honorary alumna, which goes to someone who has had a lasting commitment to William & Mary but did not graduate from the university.
"I didn't realize the impact that William & Mary had on me until that time," she said.
Beall is an alumna of Campbell University, where she met her future husband, Jim. After graduation they moved to Northern Virginia. Jean taught school in Culpeper and then Arlington.
In the early '70s, Jim enrolled in graduate school at Virginia Tech, which brought them to Blacksburg. Then back to Northern Virginia for a brief time.
In the mid-'70s, Jim got a job with a construction company in Portsmouth, so they relocated to Hampton Roads. Knowing his wife was looking for employment, he told her about an opening he heard about for a business manager with something called the Tribe Club.
"Even though I was a teacher and had no business experience whatsoever," she said.
Not only that, she majored in kinesiology at Campbell.
Beall was hired by Barry Fratkin '64, then the executive director of the William & Mary Educational Foundation (which transition to the Tribe Club and is now known as the William & Mary Athletics Foundation). She had no idea what she was getting herself into.
"This was B.C. — before computers," Beall said. "Everything I did I had to do manually."
Fratkin left in 1985 and was replaced by Bobby Dwyer, M.Ed. '94. Dwyer served as executive director until his retirement in 2019. It's fair to say he relied heavily on Beall, especially in those early years.
"Very much so," Dwyer said. "She was invaluable as far as giving me insights into individuals on the Tribe Club board or donors and how thing work at the university. I don't know how I could have done a relatively good job without her.
"Jean has a wealth of knowledge of a variety of things connected to raising money for athletics. She'll be a wonderful resource for whoever they hire to replace her. What's between her ears is really important."
Dwyer said Beall also has a natural ability to relate to people, including donors and students on campus.
"She really developed some wonderful relationships, and it was beneficial to the university," he said. "A number of those donors were inclined to give more money than they would have had they not interacted with her.
"She also had a wonderful group of students over the years who worked in the office. She was a great mentor to them. I've had a number of students mention to me the impact Jean had on their time at William & Mary and their lives."
Those relationships are what drove Beall.
"You don't realize the impact these students had on your life until later on," she said. "As my husband says, students come and go, but they always stay between the ages of 18 and 22. I feel like being around young people keeps you younger for a longer period of time.
"I feel very close to them even though there's a large age difference. It doesn't seem that way because I feel like I've stayed in touch with what they're experiencing."
In fact, many of those former students are expected to attend this weekend's festivities.
Ringing the Wren Bell will be Jean Beall's last official act at William & Mary. After that comes the good life, a.k.a. retirement.
That will include daily 3-mile walks with Jim, who retired in September. And visits to their son and his family in New York without having to check if her schedule allows it.
And it will include a lot of living on the spur of the moment.
"I've planned things for 45 years," she said. "Right now, I want to not have to plan anything."
