NEWSMAKER OF THE YEAR -- Like father like son

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- Allan Beek ties his ties unlike most men. Instead of

a visible knot between collar ends, the fabric seems to flow like a

waterfall directly from his throat.

It’s not that the 73-year-old Newport Beach resident -- a retired

computer engineer and enthusiastic community activist --would fit the

description of a dedicated follower of fashion: He’s been doing it this

way since 1956.

The idea for the tie came from “Harold Teen,” one of the characters in

a popular comic strip at the time, Beek said.

“He got a lot of heat for it,” he said of the comic figure. “But he

wanted to do it because it’s better. I realized that he was right.”

In many ways, Beek seems to follow the same logic in his work as a

community activist. Most recently it led him to write the Greenlight

Initiative, a slow-growth measure the city’s voters approved

overwhelmingly in November. As a result, residents will now have the

final say in the city’s future growth.

That logic really all comes back to something Beek’s late father,

Joseph, always used to say. The older Beek, who would later become one of

the city’s dominant figures, began selling lots on Balboa Island to

finance his way through college in 1913.

“What’s everybody’s business is nobody’s business,” Beek remembered as

his father’s philosophy. “The things that we should be looking out for,

nobody will look out for, because [people] think that others will do it.

About a dozen of us put Greenlight together. If we wouldn’t have done it,

it wouldn’t have happened.”

That’s not to say Beek thinks change is necessarily a good thing. For

years, his breakfast has consisted of a fried egg, a glass of pineapple

juice, a spoonful of yogurt and a dish of jelly, said Beek, who stands a

lean 6 feet, 4 inches.

No reason to compromise

Beek, who solves multiple-valued logic problems for a hobby, doesn’t

seem worried about keeping up appearances when he knows the better way to

do something will involve swimming against the mainstream.

“I don’t do what I do to get a seat on the 50-yard line in heaven,”

said Beek, adding that he considers himself an atheist. “I want to be

good for goodness sake.”

Balancing his personal interest in campaign finance reform, population

control and international disarmament with his professional life -- Beek

said he spent 40 years designing computers for weapons of mass

destruction -- came easy to him, he said.

“I did not mind taking [the company’s] money and using it against

them,” he said.

When it comes to his track record as a community activist, Beek seems

far less willing to accept similar compromises.

“He’s stubborn,” said former Mayor Evelyn Hart, who defeated Beek

twice in City Council elections in 1982 and 1986 but closed ranks with

her former opponent as a Greenlight supporter this year.

“I don’t think Allan enters into something lightly,” Hart said. “But

by the time he enters his name and ideas [into a project], he feels

strongly that it should be carried out.”

Beek said he ran against Hart because she supported a controversial

expansion proposal for Newport Center. Hart said she supported the

project because she felt the city’s traffic phasing ordinance would have

ensured road improvements for the $300-million development that would

have dealt with increased traffic.

“Allan would like to have no growth,” she said. “I have always been

for moderate growth.”

Beek said the old differences with Hart are long forgotten, adding

that he picks her up and hugs her whenever they meet.

Hart didn’t hold back the compliments, either.

“I even think he has a good sense of humor,” she said. “It just takes

a long time to get there. At first, he seems a little more abstract. And

then you get to know him and realize that he wants so much to accomplish

what he has set his mind to. I respect him for that.”

‘They just don’t like me’

Beek, who counts donating 100 pints of blood, as well as 100 blood

platelet units, among his finest achievements, said he is well-aware of

his flaws as a politician.

In 1986, the city’s voters didn’t choose the former planning

commissioner to replace Hart on the council. But three weeks later, a

clear majority supported a referendum led by Beek to reject the Newport

Center expansion.

“It’s evident that people in Newport Beach like my politics,” he said.

“They just don’t like me. . . . I’m a nonconformist. I’m an introvert.

I’m not as likable.”

Beek’s clearly proud of his father’s devotion to civic responsibility

-- the elder Beek served as secretary to the state Senate for 50 years

and stood up to city leaders who wanted to open Newport Beach’s harbor

for commercial use.

But while he said he looks a lot like his father, Beek added that he

didn’t think of himself as a successful heir.

“I’ve not been successful professionally,” he said. “I’ve just kind of

coasted through life. I’m very lucky. . . . I was a crummy student. I was

a crummy engineer. I am a crummy activist. . . . People seem to think I’m

competent. But I’m not.”

Beek’s older brother, Barton, 76 -- Seymour, the youngest of the Beek

sons, now runs the family-owned Balboa ferry -- took the liberty to

disagree.

“He’s a very good student -- extraordinarily bright,” he said, adding

that apart from helping to secure Greenlight’s victory, his brother’s

involvement in preserving the Back Bay was maybe the most significant of

his accomplishments.

But Barton Beek, who used to work as a business lawyer in Los Angeles

and now has an office in Corona del Mar, said his younger brother did

stray a little from the family’s beliefs.

“I think the Beeks in general have been conservative,” he said.

“Allan’s a bit of a departure. He’s a bit of a radical.”

Some of Beek’s ideas seem to fit that description.

Concerned with the world’s threat of overpopulation, Beek said every

woman should agree to bear only one child for the next century.

Married to his second wife, Jean, a child psychologist, Beek has five

stepchildren and four step-grandchildren. His own two daughters -- one

works as a driver for a medical laboratory in Fresno, the other serves in

the Coast Guard in Florida -- don’t have any children.

“I must have taught population control too seriously,” Beek said,

adding that while he’s a registered Republican, he hasn’t voted for the

party in years.

El Toro and the future

On a more local level, Beek drew on an anecdote from his father’s life

to talk about Orange County’s airport issue.

The older Beek once cut loose two cats who were fighting each other

after somebody had tied their tails together with a string.

“The victims fight each other instead of the aggressor,” Beek said.

“Instead of fighting each other, we should all work for federal

legislation that no airport will be a bad neighbor. We should have flight

caps at all airports. I publicly speak up about this from time to time,

but nobody does anything about it.”

Campaign finance reform -- “We should have campaigns paid for by the

public” -- and the introduction of acceptance voting, which would allow

voters to give their support to more than one candidate and prevent vote

splitting, will be high on the list of his future activities, Beek said.

“It’s like the tie,” he said. “It looks better. But nobody wants to

switch.”