More than 10 years ago, we started this blog to provide Dr. J. Robert Beyster with a place to connect with current and former employees of SAIC, the company he founded in 1969, and to continue to discuss his revolutionary brand of employee ownership. Now, more than two years since his passing, we expect this to be the final J. Robert Beyster blog posting. After May 31, 2017, the blog will be transitioned to an inactive status and comments will be closed.
On behalf of the Beyster family, we would like to thank each and every one of you for your comments and participation over the years. And more than that, we would like to thank you for all the love you have shown for this truly great man: Dr. J. Robert Beyster.
On April 21, the UC San Diego Library held a very special celebration of the opening of the archives of J. Robert Beyster’s papers in the UCSD Library Special Collections. The collection includes more than 200 boxes of documents covering more than 50 years of hundreds of advanced scientific innovations, small- to billion-dollar business experiments, and discontinued to transformational government program development. The earliest items in the collection are laboratory books from Dr. Beyster’s University of Michigan engineering undergraduate courses and his early scientific papers in the nuclear engineering fields.
The event was attended by the Beyster family and their guests, and several speakers talked about the importance of the papers, which will inspire and inform students, scholars, business owners, and others for years to come, and their own personal experiences with Dr. Beyster. These speakers included Brian Schottlaender and Lynda Claassen from the UCSD Library; John Fratamico, CTO, Leidos; Eric Hazard, SVP, SAIC; and daughter, Mary Ann Beyster.
During the course of the ceremonies, Mary Ann Beyster previewed a new documentary film, Enterprising Owners, which will introduce the idea of employee ownership to a younger generation of business people and students.
UCSD Library Special Collections has created a finding aid that can be used to easily search Dr. Beyster’s archives. The finding aid can be accessed via this link:
http://library.ucsd.edu/speccoll/findingaids/mss0658.html
The photo at the top of this post is of Mary Ann, Betty, and Jim Beyster, and the photos below this post are of two of Dr. Beyster’s close SAIC colleagues and friends, John Fratamico and Eric Hazard (proudly holding a Beyster Book in his hand).
Photos courtesy of Dan LaSusa, UC San Diego
