Gordon Ritter Beem

Maj. Gordon Ritter Beem, RET., USAF, MSC, 82, of Asheville, died on Sunday, May 31, 2009, at the VA Medical Center. A native of Niles, OH, Maj. Beem was a son of the late Edgar Allen and Marie Ritter Beem. He was a graduate of Bowdoin College, in Maine, and received his M.P.H. degree from Yale, in 1961. He had a 20-year career as a hospital executive in White Plains, NY, and Asheville, and served as CEO of Hall-Brooke and Elmcrest Psychiatric Hospitals, in Connecticut. From 1979 to 1981, he served as C.E.O. of Appalachian Hall, in Asheville. He was a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, serving for 25 years. Maj. Beem is survived by his wife, Jeanne Franklin Newton Beem; his first wife, Margaret Richard, of Saco, ME; daughter Andrea Beem, of St. Croix, Virgin Islands; daughter, Mimi Herald and husband Geoffrey, of Danbury, CT; son, Mark Gordon Beem and wife Stephanie, of Centennial, CO; sister, Janet Frost and husband Brant, of Macon, GA; brother, Edgar Allen Beem, Jr., and wife Betty, of Westbrook, ME; and grandchildren, Josh, Kade, Connor, Ashley, and Lauren. Interment will be at 3:00 p.m. October 9, 2009, at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA. His family asks that memorials be made to Habitat for Humanity, 30 Meadow Rd., Asheville, NC 28803.