Beam, Bill, 1930-

Miner and poetry enthusiast William "Bill" Beam was born in 1930 in Bisbee, Arizona. After graduating from high school, Beam worked as a mucker at mines in Ajo, Arizona and in Bisbee, Arizona. In the late 1950s Beam worked for the Union Carbide Corporation in Arizona and participated in their safety training program, which allowed him to work as a safety inspector in other mines around the Southwest. His experience as a safety engineer attracted attention from J. D. Hill, the Director of Safety for Reynolds Electrical and Engineering Company at the Nevada Test Site (NTS). In 1967 Beam moved to Las Vegas, Nevada and began working at the NTS. Beam wrote a book of original poems about living and working in the Southwest titled "Southwestern Cowboy Poetry." He retired from the Nevada Test Site in 1993, the same year he published his poetry.

William "Bill" Beam passed away in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 5, 2012.

Source:

William "Bill" Beam, interview by Mary Palevsky, January 20, 2005, UNLV Nevada Test Site Oral History Project, http://digital.library.unlv.edu/api/1/objects/nts/1261/bitstream