- Fr. Beauchamp Photo by Parker Shoaff
Nastacia Voisin |
After over a decade serving on The Bluff, Fr. Bill Beauchamp, the priest who never expected to be a president, will leave this June.
Saying farewell to not only the UP community, but the Portland landscape, will be hard for Beauchamp, who announced his resignation last September.
“It will always be an important part of my life,” Beauchamp said. “I’m going to miss the environment – the mountains, the river, the ocean, the weather. The beautiful, magnificent summers. The city of Portland, and all its quirky ways. I’ll miss all of it.”
Yet Beauchamp believes there’s a time to step aside for new leadership, especially when things are going well. He’ll be leaving President-elect Fr. Mark Poorman a university vastly different from the one he inherited from his predecessor Fr. David Tyson.
During Beauchamp’s presidency UP underwent many changes to its physical landscape. The Donald P. Shiley School of Engineering and Clark Library were rebuilt, the Bauccio Commons was renovated and Fields and Schoenfeldt Hall was added. The University received honors for student service, its number of Fulbright recipients and record highs in enrollment, applications, retention and student diversity.
Yet Beauchamp says a large portion of the praise belongs to the many people who help him run the University.
“People have this image of the president – as if he’s always making these huge decisions,” Beauchamp said. “But the day-to-day responsibilities of a president are fairly mundane. As a president, I’ve never thought of myself as different from anyone else who works at the University.”
While students may have perceived him as an abstract figure running the University from Waldschmidt Hall, Beauchamp said UP’s community has been the heart of his work as president. It’s that strong sense of unity that made community tragedies the hardest part of Beauchamp’s presidency and times of celebration the highlights.
“The best part of the job is every year seeing the new freshman coming in, seeing how excited they are,” Beauchamp said. “And then on the other end, graduation: saying goodbye and bidding those students farewell.”
Students who know Beauchamp as a person as well as a president say he’s someone whose friendship they’ve appreciated.
ASUP president junior Quin Chadwick said Beauchamp has many unexpected sides to him – a fondness for magnets, a wry sense of humor and the ability to make truly excellent carrot cake.
To those intimidated by Beauchamp’s rank or serious demeanor, Chadwick advised them to “give him the benefit of the doubt.”
“Once you get through that gruff exterior, there’s a very funny, caring person underneath with a great sense of humor,” he said. “He has a hand in everything. That’s really what his job is – keeping track of the campus. He really cares.”
