Please continue to be in prayer for the Beard family. There is a collection of Stan’s teachings and a remembrance of Stan’s life, written by his daughter, Amy Low below.
Our dear friend, colleague, and encourager, Rev. Stan Beard, went to be with the Lord unexpectedly on Monday morning, July 15th, 2019.
You can hear a collection of Stan’s sermons and Bible study teachings here and there’s a great interview that Shannon Cunningham had with the Beards on her podcast LJPC Conversations here.
And here is a moving remembrance of Stan’s life, written by his daughter, Amy Low:
Stanley Claude Beard
August 18, 1940 — July 15, 2019
“I have come that they may have life. And have it abundantly.” John 10:10
Stan Beard died peacefully on Monday July 15.
He was the husband to his beloved wife, Marie; father to Steve, Amy, and Mindy; father-in-law to Julie and Kyle; grandfather to Andrew, Hannah, Hailey, Connor, Lucy, Sydney, and Ashlyn; brother to Ed and Spencer; and pastor, encourager, and devoted friend to thousands.
He was an expert in three areas: baseball, storytelling, and loving others through his abiding and joyful faith in God. On all other matters, he was open to suggestions, debate, recommendations, and a chance to learn more.
Stan was born in Los Angeles and spent part of his childhood growing up in West Hollywood in a culturally Jewish neighborhood, which is why he preferred the word “nosh,” to “snack.”
His love of baseball began early, with a young talent strong enough to play two minor league seasons with the Cincinnati Reds from 1962–63. He would have been thrilled to know that the date of his death was the same as Tony Gwynn’s first professional baseball debut.
But Stan knew early on that his draft to the big leagues was more about a deeper calling to loving people well. By his mid-20s, his love for the Lord pulled him toward a lifetime of ministry — an opportunity to walk alongside countless individuals to wrestle with the most essential questions life offers.
He spent 30 years working with Young Life, providing mentorship, encouragement, and wisdom to thousands of high school students and college counselors. Stan began as a young volunteer but went on to roles in senior leadership, eventually directing Young Life’s national resources and training work. He was captivated by people moving through the season of young adulthood, where questions about life and faith are offered with a deep curiosity and a yearning for abiding truths strong enough to help shape futures.
Later Stan transitioned to a pastoral role with La Jolla Presbyterian Church, where he ministered to seniors and really anyone interested in asking many of the same questions, but with a frame far more centered on how to find transcendent truths in all the decades that came before.
In between his pastoral roles, Stan served as president of Southwest Leadership Foundation from 1995 until 2002, where he provided support to individuals living through complex seasons, including families transitioning through homelessness and teenage moms raising their young families with an extended community of support.
He was the author of thousands of talks for high school students, sermons, advent and Lenten meditations, long birthday and anniversary notes, and letters that had a way of showing up just in time. But he saved his best work for short insights he would write on napkins, written with a black felt tip pen using his signature all caps penmanship, while having a chat with someone at a local diner. Many of us have these napkins folded carefully in wallets or tucked away in drawers, because somehow those small collection of words helped illuminate the most important ideas of all.
His life coincided with a time of remarkable innovation and technological progress. Stan opted out of most it. As the world became more efficient, he embraced simplicity, because he knew that in the simple, some of the most complex insights were easier to find, and grasp. When the rest of us moved to a cell phone, Stan began calling more friends and family for longer talks on a land line. When we texted, he reached out to schedule a purposeful conversation, with a napkin for note taking close.
He preferred road trips to planes. Long road trips were best. We’ll never know exactly why, but we often saw Stan at his most content gazing into a long highway, with an eternal horizon ahead. What better way to ponder what God might have in store for the next mile.
He loved sports. And while sports with clocks had their place, for Stan, the best sports were unencumbered by an artificially set time. Golf, tennis, and baseball were the most magical of all, and he raised his children to appreciate each one. Because Stan knew that with every putt, every serve, and every at bat there was a chance for a new story to be told, a renewal to begin, a surprise to behold. He understood, better than most, that grace always bats last.
Because throughout his life, he saw grace in action. Through his love for God, Stan quietly helped open doors to intimate and life changing miracles. Some of those miracles were grand and heroic, like when a 17 year old’s life forever changed after hearing the Gospel explained in a joyful and relatable way. And some miracles were far more intimate and subtle, like when he moved into conversations that were anchored with questions like, “I wonder what God is up to here?” and “I wish I had an answer, but I know God is close to this question. And so let’s keep wrestling with it.”
But really a baseball game, 18 holes, or a tennis match was actually a grand excuse to find a way to love the person sitting next to him through nine innings, or to walk alongside a treasured friend on the green. And he did it best through telling stories, finding nuggets of meaning in the smallest but most profound moments. Because Stan understood that stories anchored in truth reveal a far more expansive world of formative possibilities. In these stories, he knew we didn’t learn more, we became more of who we were meant to be.
He saved his very best stories for his family. He raised his children to be Padres fans, which is to say rugged champions of all underdogs, everywhere. He spoiled and showered praise on his grandchildren whenever he had the chance. He had a bond with his brothers that never wavered, forever friends through eight decades.
And most of all, he cherished the love of his life, Marie, whom he adored. They began a conversation on a blind date that never paused, exchanging ideas through 54 years, discussing the familiar while discovering fresh topics through their love of adventures (especially those that took them to Berlin), and from the new people they came to know along their shared path.
Stan Beard embodied the abundant life. And all who were privileged to know him are the living recipients of this abundance. His legacy, and his stories, will endure for generations, perhaps the most beautiful of all the miracles Stan helped shape.
And while his life included dozens of chapters, his love for young people remained steadfast throughout. To honor that lifetime commitment, we invite you to consider a donation to Young Life San Diego, where his calling began, and where he continued to mentor leaders for more than five decades.
A service to celebrate his faithfulness to us, and to God, will be on Sunday August 11th at 4pm at La Jolla Presbyterian Church.