There’s a great American hero, we all look up to

When the times are hard and the chips are down, he knows just what to do

Now a cowboy’s got a set of rules that he lives by day to day

If you ask for his advice, he’ll more than likely say…

“Cowboy Logic” by Michael Martin Murphey 

 

      If you take a look around University Police Captain Dan Beck’s office, you’ll catch a glimpse of the people he holds nearest and dearest.

There are tapestries made by his wife, Denise, including one that replicates a photograph of the first buck Beck ever shot. There are at least a dozen pictures of his son, Shane Beck, with his wife, Becky, and their son Brody.

“I love being my grandson Brody’s grandpa. He calls me Poppy,” Beck said as he pointed to a framed painting with two small red handprints on it, surrounded by the words “World’s Best Poppy, hands down!”

There’s a Marine Corps flag representing Beck, who served as a Marine in Vietnam, and a Coast Guard flag representing Shane, who rescued over 58 people and a huge whale, as his dad will tell you proudly.

“I am so proud of Shane. When the nurse handed me my son for the first time, I cried like a baby … and when my daughter-in-law put my grandson in my arms, I cried like a baby. If I’ve done anything right in this world, I will say my son. Of course, his mother may have had a little something to do with it, but I think she had more of a minor role,” Beck joked.

Beck began working at St. Edward’s almost 27 years ago in August 1988, after his wife Denise set up a job interview for him when the police department at the university was just getting started. When Beck arrived, the campus had 11 above ground structures. Now, there are over 30.

Today, Beck spends most of the day doing paperwork, but he remembers the days when he got to interact with the students more often while patrolling around campus.

“I love this campus. It’s just a beautiful campus. It’s just everything God created.”

If you had been a student at St. Edward’s a while back, you may have heard students calling Beck by his campus-given nickname: “Officer Friendly.” Earning that nickname is one of Beck’s proudest moments during his career at St. Edward’s. 

 

If it’s a fence, mend it. If it’s a dollar bill, spend it.

Before it burns a hole down in them jeans

If it’s a load, truck it. If it’s a punch, duck it. 

If she’s a lady, treat her like a queen

That’s cowboy logic, every cowboy’s got it…

“Cowboy Logic”

 

       Beck was born in 1950 at the old Seton hospital in Austin, which has since been demolished. He has lived here his entire life.

“Me and the Barton Creek salamanders, we’re the last of the original Austinites,” Beck said.

Beck has been a cowboy since he can remember, always doing what he wanted to do, always carrying around a two-gun, Lone Ranger cap pistol set everywhere he went as a kid. He thinks the song “Cowboy Logic” by Michael Martin Murphey, covers part of his life philosophy pretty well.  

“I had a stick horse that went everywhere with me. When I got older, I got a bicycle, and my stick horse had broke … so I put the stick horse’s head on my bicycle. I used to be able to rope on my bicycle.”  

At 6 feet 5 inches, Beck towers above most people, including his father, his son and John Wayne, who he met once. An avid collector of Western films, Beck owns every John Wayne Western movie ever made.  

“I was conceived in ‘49 when they were doing above ground nuclear testing. I was born in ‘50. My father’s only five-eleven; my son’s six foot. I’m the abnormal one of the family. And if you go back and look at the 1950s horror movies, it’s always about giant creatures that come from nuclear testing. Giant gorillas, giant people.”

A giant Captain Dan.

Everything about Beck says he’s a gentle giant. He lives for his family, his job and his community. When he hunts and fishes, he won’t shoot or keep anything he’s not going to eat.

“[My wife] says, ‘Well, you buy bait and don’t come home with it. So you must be feeding the fish.’ And she says, ‘I know you spend more time watching the animals than shooting them.’ And it’s true. There’s a lot of times I just go out and sit there and watch critters and don’t pick up the gun. And there’s times that I do. I’m an animal person.”

Beck and his wife have four dogs and one cat: a German Spitz named Blitzen, a cat named Impish, a German Shepherd named Cuma and two Yorkshire Terriers named Tweetie and Scooby. Beck sleeps with Impish on his pillow and Blitzen by his side. 

“My dog and I, we sit there and have conversations. It makes my wife nuts. Whatever he wants to talk about, whatever is bothering him for the day, or not. Whatever he’s happy about. We really do have conversations. They understand.”

 

      Beck was inspired to become a police officer by his uncle Dan and his love of Western movies. One of the most vivid memories of his childhood is of his uncle Dan, who was a constable, helping out a man who wrote a check with insufficient funds instead of arresting him. The man had gone over on his check by $7 when he was buying shoes for his children. 

“We went down to the store, wherever he’d written the hot check at, and I watched my uncle pay cash money to take care of the check. And he told the guy to just pay him back … I remember that, so it must have been very important to me as a child ‘cause of the way that he treated people. He didn’t treat people like they were criminals, so I tried to carry it on,” Beck said.

And carry it on he has: On the occasions when Beck has made arrests of homeless people on campus, he usually tries to stop at McDonald’s to buy them something to eat on the way down to jail.

With this same attitude, he has spent the last 26 years caring for his St. Edward’s community and protecting it.

“You need to care about your community,” Beck said. “Policing isn’t just running around chasing bad guys, arresting bad guys, and doing investigations and putting them in jail. It’s also preventing crimes and teaching the community how not to be victims of crimes.”

Not even open heart surgery could keep Beck away for very long.

Four years ago, Beck had his aorta and aortic valve replaced because of damage caused from exposure to Agent Orange, a herbicide and defoliant used to clear the Vietnamese jungle, sprayed by the U.S. military during the war.

“You can’t keep me down. I’m a former Marine and a cowboy. I’m going to work! The doctors were wrong, but the doctors are happy.”

Beck plans to retire between next March and May. He is planning to sell his house in town and buy property in the country. In five years, he sees himself on his little farm, living a cowboy lifestyle.

“Either fishing with my grandson down at the stock pond or working on my garden, or messing with the animals or riding my horse with my grandson. Helping my wife can vegetables and fruits. Being quiet. I love being out in the country. It’s so quiet.”

 

It’s in the way he lives his life and the songs he sings,

That’s cowboy logic, every cowboy’s got it, 

He’s got a simple solution to just about anything

If it’s a job, do it. Put your back into it. 

‘Cause a little bit of dirt’s gonna wash off in the rain

If it’s a horse, ride it. If it hurts, hide it. 

Dust yourself off and get back on again…

“Cowboy Logic”

 

       About 11 years ago, on Beck’s 25th anniversary with his wife Denise, they went out to eat like they do every year.

“She decided she was gonna tell me about all the wonderful changes she made in me at 25 years. And finally after about 15 minutes, she just got this real funny look on her face, and she’s like, ‘Okay, so I haven’t made any changes in you.’ And it’s the truth … I’m the exact same person that I’ve always been. The Marine Corps tried to change me, my parents tried to change me, my wife’s tried to change me. I just don’t think I’m smart enough to change. I’m just me.”

“Me” is the kind of husband who is quick to talk about how smart his wife is while mentioning her constantly in conversation, and the kind of father who tears up when he talks about the day he met his son for the first time as the proudest of his life.

“Me” is the kind of grandfather whose face lights up when he brags about his six-year-old grandson being smarter than he is, and the kind of father-in-law who walked his daughter-in-law down the aisle like she was his own.

And “me” is the officer who has been a part of this community for almost 27 years, making it a safer place for everyone. “Me” is Captain Dan; but you might know him as Officer Friendly.