In Remembrance of Mike Beagle

Dearest Alumni & Friends,

I share with great sadness that Mike Beagle, a friend to all who he met and one of SOU’s most loyal advocates, has passed away. Mike left us on Sunday, February 15, while doing what he loved—hiking the woods and mountains of his native southern Oregon.

Most of you are aware of the characteristics and values that defined Mike: he was a hardcore conservationist, a devoted educator, a proud military veteran and—perhaps most passionately—one of the most outspoken champions of our university.

Mike graduated from Eagle Point High School before his first stint at SOU, earning his bachelor’s degree in History in 1985. He was on the football team from the 1981 through 1984 seasons, serving as co-captain in 1984 and earning all-conference honors as a defensive back three times. He served on the Student Senate during the 1984-85 academic year.

He then attended the U.S. Army Officer Candidate School and U.S. Army Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia, earning his commission as a second lieutenant in 1986. Mike served for three and a half years with the 9^th Infantry Division at Fort Lewis, Washington, before coming home to Oregon for a year as executive officer of A Company 1, 186^th Infantry Division of the Army National Guard.

Mike then earned his master’s degree in History and Government in 1993 from the University of Portland, while serving as a social studies teacher at Tigard High School, and followed that with teaching assignments at Silverton High School and South Medford High School. In all, he taught high school social studies for 15 years and coached football and baseball for 19 years.

The next phase of Mike’s varied career focused on his love of the outdoors. He remained in the Medford-Grants Pass area to serve for seven years as the Oregon field director for Trout Unlimited, working with hunters and anglers on public land issues. At about the same time, he became a founding board member and served as chair of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers—an organization that grew from a campfire in the south Cascade foothills to a public land conservation organization with 35,000 members in the U.S. and Canada.

He had been active with SOU’s Raider Booster Club and the Raider Red Zone even before he was hired in 2012 as SOU’s Director of Alumni Relations. Mike tracked graduates and built membership in the SOU Alumni Association, organizing Raider Rendezvous events throughout the West, putting SOU on display for each fall’s Homecoming Weekend and sharing his love for the university with fellow alumni wherever he could find them.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that every person who walked across our commencement stage for the past 12-plus years received an email or phone call from Mike—and a high percentage likely had a refreshment with him at Omar’s.

Let’s all please remember—and celebrate—Mike for the superstar team member and dedicated Raider that he will always be. All of us are sending love to his family; please keep them in your thoughts and keep Mike’s spirit alive through your love and commitment to each other, and to our university.

In fondest memory,