Thomas J. Beck, Professor Emeritus at Thaddeus Stevens College in Lancaster, passed away on April 14, 2015 at Hershey Medical Center. Tom was born in Lancaster, PA, the son of Edward J. and Mary Beck. He graduated from Lancaster Catholic High School in 1958 and found employment for a year at the Hamilton Watch Company. He enrolled in Millersville University and graduated with a major in both history and English in 1964. He received his Masters in Education from Temple University, Philadelphia.

Tom's first employment after college graduation was with the School District of Lancaster as an English teacher at Edward Hand Junior High School. In 1971, he accepted a position at Thaddeus Stevens College where he taught a variety of communication topics until his retirement in 1999. His area of expertise was technical writing.

During his tenure at Stevens, Tom served on and chaired various college committees, some of which were instrumental in bringing Middle States' Accreditation to Stevens. In 1992, he was president of the Faculty Senate. He held membership in a number of education associations. Tom also taught business communications for the Penn State Branch Campus in Lancaster County.

Tom also held his real estate license for over 15 years with Dan Diller Realtors, of Lancaster. After retiring from education, Tom and his wife enjoyed traveling to different parts of the world including over 60 countries. He was also an active member of both the Lancaster County Master Gardener Program and the Lancaster County Postcard Club, where he twice served as president. In 2005, he compiled a commemorative Centennial book about Stevens College for school's 100th anniversary.

Tom's hobbies were family photography, bird watching, and his great love was vegetable gardening, especially tomatoes and also dahlias.

He is survived by his loving wife, Betty J., Lititz, PA; and two daughters, Allison Gordon, wife of Barry, East Windsor, NJ and Pamela Degler of Lancaster; and two grandchildren, Alexander and Elizabeth, East Windsor, NJ.

A memorial service will be held on June 20, 2015 at 11:00, at Brick Gables, 800 East Newport Rd., Lititz. http://brickgables.com/. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Thaddeus Stevens Foundation, 740 East End Avenue, Lancaster, PA 17602.