Ex-VA, U Official Dies

Dr. Morley Beckett (as Health Service Director)

Dr. Morley B Beckett who served as
t'he first manager of the Ann Arbor Veterans
HOspital from 1953 untill957, and
thrn as director of th{' U-M's SLUdent
Health Service umil retiring in 1968, died
Friday at Butterworth Hospital in Grand
Rapids. He was 74
Hi:s death followed a lengthy hospitalization
for mjurics received in an auto accident
near his home in Harbor Springs.
Or. Beckett was born in Brantford,
Ont. He received his medical degree
from the University of Toronto in 1926,
became a U.S. citizen 1n 1932, and received
his master of public health degree
from Johns Hopkins University in 1933.
Dr. Beckett initially came to Ann Arbor
in 1946 as assistant director of
t:niversity Hospital.
Prior to that appointment, he had been
director of W. K. Kellogg Foundation ac·
tivities in Allegan County from 1935 to
1942, and then had served four years in
the Army Medical Corps.
Earher, he had served as a school
phystcian in the Cleveland, Ohio city
health department, then asasMslantcity
health officer in Saginaw, and then as di·
rector ol the Isabella County health
departmentinMt.Pieasant.
He left the Univer.;ity Hospital position
in 1947 to become superintendent of Roy.
a\ Jubilee Hospital on Vancouver Island,
British Columbia until· returning to Ann
Arbor as manager of the VA Hospital.
Dr. Be<:kett is survived by his wife,
Blanche, of Harbor Springs; by two sons,
John, of Saline, and James. of Grand
Rapids, and by seven grandchildren.
Cremation and a private service have
taken place.
The family requests that donations in
lieu of flowers be made either to Butter·
worth Hospital in Grand Rapids or to Lit·
tle Traverse Hospital in Petoskey.