Memorial Will Honor UCLA’s Professor Beals

A memorial honoring Ralph L. Beals will be held Friday at 4 p.m. at the UCLA North Campus facility. Colleagues and friends of the late UCLA professor are invited, according to Dr. Walter Goldschmidt, professor emeritus of anthropology.

Beals, who died Feb. 24 at 83, came to UCLA in 1936. In 1940 he established the department of anthropology and sociology and served as chairman during its formative years.

Beals specialized in Latin America, studying the cultures and peoples of Mexico and Bolivia. He was prominent in public affairs relating to Latin America and was influential in the development of the Latin American Studies Center at UCLA. An internationally known scholar, he served on numerous national councils and was president of the American Anthropological Assn. in 1950.

“Ralph was a prominent member of that generation of eminent scholars and devoted faculty that succeeded in transforming UCLA from a small college into its present position of leadership in the world today,” according to UCLA Vice Chancellor William Schaefer.

Beals is survived by his wife, Dorothy Manchester Beals; two sons, Alan, a professor of anthropology at the University of California, Riverside, and Ralph Carlton, professor of sociology at the University of Toronto, and a daughter, Mariana Beatty of Davis.