In Memoriam
Don E. Beck, Ph.D. has been the prototype for activists in the new millennium. His dedication to service and discovery saw him become profoundly involved in global ventures that continue to grow in scope and gather momentum.
In 1981, having taught for 20 years and been listed as “Outstanding Educator in America,” Dr. Beck chose to resign his professorship to dedicate himself to serving in the South African transformation process.
From that pivotal point in his life, Beck worked at the highest levels of social concern. Between 1981 and 2002, he made 63 trips to South Africa, working behind the scene with political, business, and religious leaders, and the general public in the transition from apartheid to democracy. He was honored in 1996 by a Joint Resolution of the Texas House and Senate with these words: “The Texas House and Senate takes great pride in commending a truly remarkable Texan, Dr. Don Edward Beck, for his invaluable contributions toward the peaceful creation of a democratic South Africa.”
In addition to serving alongside Nelson Mandela on the creation of deep reconciliation strategies in the post-apartheid South Africa, Dr. Beck consulted with Tony Blair and his Policy Unit in search for new ways to implement “Third Way” initiatives in the UK and abroad, and with Bill Clinton in discussing racial issues in USA. He also worked with the Singapore government and the Mexican government.
While much of Dr. Beck’s work was in the area of large-scale systems change, he was also active for more than 30 years in working with corporate leaders, public institutions, educational enterprises, and not-for-profit agencies on transformation. He was unique in that he moved freely between cutting-edge academic and scientific theories of value formation and change, and a proficiency in implementing practical and highly effective change in the real world.
Spiral Dynamics Integral
Dr. Beck has inspired thousands of people toward a new experience of organizational and personal empowerment through Spiral Dynamics (Spiral Dynamics Integral), his unique values-based model that charts the evolution and emergence of human nature.
Spiral Dynamics Integral (SDi), concerns itself with the deep complexity codes that shape our many worlds. The model describes and makes sense of the enormous complexity of human existence, and then shows how to craft elegant, systemic problem-solutions that meet people and address situations where they are.
Conceived and led by Dr. Beck, SDi is an advanced extension and elaboration of the biopsychosocial systems concept originated by the late Dr. Clare W. Graves of Union College, New York, and later developed as Spiral Dynamics—a model that Canada’s Maclean’s Magazine rather grandly dubbed “The Theory that Explains Everything.”
Beck built upon Spiral Dynamics in the development of a powerful new conceptual system, called MeshWORKS: The Search for Human Cohesion in a World of Fragmentation, which enables the essential process of integrating, aligning, and synergizing resources, especially at the community and local levels, to meet the needs of people at different stages of development (MESHWORKS).
Dr. Beck’s achievements:
- Founder in 2004 of the Center for Human Emergence
- Founding Partner of The National Values Center in Denton, Texas
- President and CEO of The Spiral Dynamics Group, Inc., a global enterprise
- Member of The American Psychological Association; The World Future Society; The International Paleopsychology Project, and the “Cadre-of-Experts on Ethnopolitical Violence,” named by the American and Canadian Psychological Associations.
- Head of PhD program at Adizes Graduate School • Associate Professor, Conoco Corporate University
- Founder, The Institute for Values & Culture
- Fellow of the George Gallup Institute at Princeton. Beck was named outstanding professor at the University of North Texas in 1978; named an Honor Professor in 1979. He was also team psychologist for South African Springbok, winners of the 1995 World Cup Rugby competition.
- Beck is coauthor of Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership & Change (1996).
