Sir Marcus Truby Beeck (28 December 1923 – 2 May 1986) was an Australian farmer and businessman. He served as president of the

Royal Agricultural Society of Western Australia The Royal Agricultural Society of Western Australia (RASWA) was established 1831 in Western Australia. Early history It held its first annual agricultural show, the Fair and Cattle Show, at Guildford, Western Australia, Guildford on 7 November ...

from 1975 to 1978 and as chairman of

Wesfarmers Wesfarmers Limited is an Australian conglomerate, headquartered in Perth, Western Australia. It has interests predominantly in Australia and New Zealand, operating in retail, chemical, fertiliser, industrial and safety products. With revenue o ...

from 1983 until his death.

Early life

Beeck was the son of Martha Ellen (née Keast) and Gustav Edwin Beeck. He was born at the family property in Katanning, Western Australia. Beeck learned by

distance education Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance; today, it usually involves online ...

in all but his final year of schooling. He enlisted in the

Royal Australian Air Force The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is the principal Air force, aerial warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Australian Army. Constitutionally the Governor-Gener ...

(RAAF) in May 1942 and trained as a fitter, serving in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

, in

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

, and on Morotai.Wendy Birman, 'Beeck, Sir Marcus Truby (1923–1986)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/beeck-sir-marcus-truby-12189/text21851, published first in hardcopy 2007, accessed online 21 June 2017. On his return to Australia, Beeck acquired a sheep and grain property at Coyrecup (just east of Katanning). He married Leonie Robertson in 1950, with whom he would have four children.

Career

Community service

Beeck served on the Katanning Road Board from 1947 to 1951, and was involved with many local organisations. He was elected as a councillor of the

in 1966, and served as president from 1975 to 1978, overseeing a redevelopment of the Claremont Showground. Beeck accompanied numerous overseas trade missions (often under the auspices of the Department of Overseas Trade), and visited Europe, Japan, the Soviet Union, and Indonesia. Beeck was created a

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised Order of chivalry, orders of chivalry; it is a part of the Orders, decorations, and medals ...

in the 1979 Birthday Honours, "in recognition of service to agriculture".It's An Honour
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Business career

Beeck was elected to the board of the Grain Pool of Western Australia in 1969, and served as chairman from 1972 to 1973 and from 1975 to 1977. He was president of the steering committee that arranged for amalgamation of the pool with the barley and seed

marketing board A marketing board is an organization created by many producers to try to market their product and increase consumption and thus prices. It can also be defined as an organization set up by a government to regulate the buying and selling of a certai ...

s. Beeck was made a director of

in 1977, and then in 1983 succeeded Maurice Clayton as chairman. Wesfarmers was still organised as a farmers'

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...

at that time, but the following year transitioned to a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of share capital, stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) co ...

and listed on the

Australian Stock Exchange Australian Securities Exchange Ltd (ASX) is an Australian public company that operates Australia's primary securities exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange (sometimes referred to outside of Australia as, or confused within Australia as, ...

. Beeck continued on as chairman until his death from cancer in 1986.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beeck, Marcus 1923 births 1986 deaths Australian chairpersons of corporations 20th-century Australian farmers Australian Knights Bachelor Australian people of German descent People from Katanning, Western Australia Royal Australian Air Force personnel of World War II Wesfarmers people Royal Australian Air Force airmen Farmers from Western Australia Businesspeople awarded knighthoods

Early life

Career

Community service

Business career

See also

References