Peninsula In Passage

Frederick Beazley and the Beazley Legacy In 1961, Frederick College, a four year liberal arts school, opened in North Suffolk. Eight years later its impressive wrought iron archway carried a new name – Tidewater Community College, Frederick W. Beazley Campus - over the road winding to the spacious waterfront campus. “Frederick” was Frederick W. Beazley, a self-made millionaire and philanthropist who left a legacy of community support to southeastern Virginia. Little of Beazley’s life was documented but fortunately

Richard Bray had a personal connection with him. Bray, retired judge and current president and CEO of the Beazley Foundation, grew up across the street from his friend and mentor, Judge Lawrence W. I’Anson who was also Beazley’s confidante. The young Bray often rode along in the back seat while I’Anson and Beazley made their Saturday morning rounds together. “Mr. Beazley smoked a cigar and was very serious,” Bray says. “I was intimidated – didn’t say much.” But he listened and learned.

Frederick Beazley

Beazley, born in 1892, was expelled at 14 from the Portsmouth Public Schools, Bray says, for being a disruptive influence. He then went to St. Paul’s School until he dropped out at 16, borrowed $40 to buy a horse and cart and delivered coal and oil door to door. During the summer months he opened cold storage units and later got into ice manufacturing. By 1929 he was a millionaire – and lost it all in the stock market crash. But he refused bankruptcy, promising to pay off his debts. A year later his business reputation helped him take over the Atlantic Ice Company in Atlanta, GA He rebuilt his career and fortune there for 18 years before returning to Portsmouth and buying a vast farm along the Elizabeth River in what is now Churchland. Beazley had a soft spot for youngsters who grew up without life’s advantages. He and his wife, Marie, funded and operated five recreation centers for young people around the city. Beazley and I’Anson drove around the town to check on the centers every Saturday. “We often were in Mr. Beazley’s black Cadillac (never new, always used) and would stop at Rodman’s for a ham sandwich and a cup of chowder,” Bray remembers. “And every Saturday we took clam chowder home to Mrs. I’Anson.”

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