Dorothy Pozniko Beam died peacefully on November 7, 2024. She was born in Salem, Ohio on April 10, 1934, to Michael B. and Julia Pozniko. She graduated as Valedictorian from Salem High School and earned her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, New York. She was trained as a concert pianist by Orazio Frugoni in the Eastman-Rochester School of Music. She taught music at Linden Hall Junior College and School for Girls in Lititz, PA for 10 years.

She married Professor C. Richard Beam in 1964 and lived in Marburg, Germany for 3 years where Herr Beam directed the Junior Year Abroad Program of Millersville University.

In 1971, Frau Beam joined the music department at Millersville State College as Professor of Piano. She annotated the program notes for the Lancaster Symphony for 29 seasons. She was a piano soloist for the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra. The peak of her concert career was a performance of Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto with the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Polish conductor Andrezej Jurkiewicz; she was also an accomplished accompanist. Frequently, she accompanied her husband and others on his many recitals as a tenor soloist. In 1994, she retired from Millersville University.

Dorothy, die Bischlin-Gnipplin, assisted in the editing of the Beam and Trout Comprehensive Pennsylvania German Dictionary .

Dorothy P. Beam was a member of Muddy Creek Lutheran Church, Denver, Pennsylvania. Her husband, C. Richard Beam, passed away on January 26, 2018, after 53 ½ years of marriage. The last of her immediate family, she was predeceased by an infant sister Julia and by her brother, John Michael Pozniko.

Survivors are cousins Dr. Arthur Hale (Sandia, NM), Michelle Kubicina (Cortland, OH), and Ronald Kuhn (San Francisco, CA), and co-editor Jennifer L. Trout, and friends.

A Funeral Service will be held on Wednesday, November 13, 2024, at the Muddy Creek Lutheran Church, 11 S. Muddy Creek Rd. Denver, PA 17517, at 10 AM. Interment to follow in the church's cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to Muddy Creek Lutheran Church at the address above.