Dale Lucien “OD” Beam passed away at home surrounded by his loving family on the evening of January 9, 2024. He was born on February 12, 1948 to Christina Esther (Biehle) and Roy Elsworth Beam. He was the youngest of their ten children. The Beam family lived a modest life in North Vernon, Indiana. Losing his father at the age of two and with no role model to follow, Dale still became a devoted husband to Karen (Thompson); wonderful father to three children, Koren Elizabeth Bousley, Lucien Matthew Beam, and Kelsey Lynne Rizzi; adored grandfather to six grandchildren, Abigail Joann Bousley, Jakob Van Bousley, Lucien Andrew Beam, Connor Dale Beam, Lilly Anne Beam and Levi Anthony Rizzi; and much loved father-in-law to Jason Joseph Bousley, Allyson Anne Beam and Tony David Rizzi.
A 1966 graduate of North Vernon High School, Dale ran track and cross country and was a member of the Lettermen’s Club and FFA. He left the family farm to attend Indiana University at Bloomington where he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in business(1970). In the spring of 1969 while working as a student manager in a dorm cafeteria on campus, he met the love of his life Karen who would become his Susie. The young couple married on July 3, 1971. That same year, Dale began working for Blue Cross and Blue Shield and soon earned his CPA. He retired from the company in 2007. Dale continued his accounting career with IU Family Medicine from 2007 to 2014.
Dale’s love of his family farm never left his heart, and he longed to spend more time in nature. He and Karen bought a property on Centenary Road in Mooresville in 1980. It was a small farm where he could have a tractor, raise a few crops and put his hands in the dirt. Dale’s favorite things were the simple joys of life like sleeping in the barn with his kids on rainy nights listening to the rain on the tin roof, camping in the tree house he built for his children, having “church” beside the creek, hunting for mushrooms, and cutting firewood.
When their kids were almost grown and out of the house, the Beams sold their property on Centenary Road and built a new home in Camby. Dale still enjoyed the outdoors and had a vegetable garden in the new yard. He loved to walk the undeveloped neighborhood collecting rocks that he used in the landscaping around the house. Family members took some of his rocks to use at their own homes. He collected so many that he earned the nickname “Rockhound”. He bought a Woodmizer saw, and milled wood with his son Lucien under the company name Sawdust Boys. Dale was more than just a hard worker. He also studied Jungian psychology and focused on self-exploration. He was an intellectual focused on being the best man he could be.
In addition to his wife, children, and grandchildren, Dale also leaves behind three siblings, Wilma Graper, Clare Clark, and Chet Beam. He was preceded in death by his parents Roy and Christina Beam; son-in-law Jason Bousley; brothers Roy, Andrew and John and sisters Anna Beam, Barbara Trowbridge and Tine Jacobson.
Visitation will be held at Carlisle-Branson Funeral Home in Mooresville on Sunday, January 14th from 1-4PM with service at 4PM. Reverend Shelly Zook will officiate. Cremation will follow. Bousley Funeral Home has been entrusted with Dale’s care.
Dale loved the woods, nature, and parks. Donations can be made in his honor to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources through the Indiana Natural Resources Foundation at www.IndianaNRF.org.
