Rikkard (Richard) Hansson Beck (IR#I392352) was a noted Icelandic-American scholar, teacher, writer, and poet, an outstanding man of his generation. He left a legacy of promoting the Icelandic language, literature, and culture to the University of Victoria B.C.: The Richard and Margaret Beck Trust.
Richard’s parents, Hans Kjartan Nielsson Beck and Thorunn Vigfúsina Vigfúsdóttir lived in Litlu-Breidavik in Reydarfjördur, eastern Iceland. Richard was only ten when his father died. As a young man, Richard helped his mother eke out a living by working as a foreman on an open fishing boat.
He also distinguished himself as a keen student. In those times, the Reykjavik Gymnasium prepared people for university with a program focused on foreign languages and science. Richard spent two years in residence, then mastered the rest of his subjects by himself or with the aid of tutors. He graduated in 1920. That same year, he married Olöf Daníelsdóttir (IR#I181466); sadly, she died six months later.
Richard and his widowed mother, Thorunn, emigrated in the fall of 1921 to Winnipeg, Manitoba, where her brother lived. In 1922, Richard went to Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. to complete graduate work in English and Scandinavian languages and literature. He received his M.A. in 1924 and his Ph.D. in 1926.
Richard married Una Kristbjorg (Bertha) Leifur (IR#I465417) in Ithica, New York, on April 9, 1925. They had two children: Margaret Helen, born in Greenville, Pennsylvania in 1929, and Richard Jr. born in Grand Forks, North Dakota in 1933.
After teaching at small colleges in Minnesota and Pennsylvania, Richard joined the staff at the University of North Dakota (UND) in Grand Forks in 1929. During his long tenure at UND, he was the head of the Department of Modern and Classical Languages for nine years. He published 15 books and more than 500 articles. He retired after 38 years at the University.
Richard received many honours for his achievements as a teacher, scholar, writer and poet. In 1969, the University of North Dakota conferred upon him an honorary Doctor of Literature degree. He also was awarded two honorary doctorates from the University of Iceland.
During his long career at the University of North Dakota, Richard Beck worked tirelessly to promote Icelandic culture and literature. He wrote many pieces for the Icelandic weeklies in Winnipeg and for Timarit.
Richard was the honorary consul of Iceland for North Dakota for years. He was very active in Icelandic and Scandinavian organizations and was a sought-after public speaker. His greatest honour was his invitation to speak in Iceland at Thingvellir on June 17, 1944, to mark the founding of the Icelandic Republic. That same year, he was awarded the The Order of the Grand Knight of the Icelandic Falcon and made a Knight of the St. Olav Order by appointment of the King of Norway.
Richard’s wife Bertha, passed away in 1958. In June 1961 he married Margaret Jacobina Brandson (IR#I249342), who shared his interest in Icelandic organizations. Margaret was the daughter of Einar G. Brandson and and Sigridur Einarsdottir from Myrdalur, near Vik. Margaret’s parents emigrated in 1886 and made their home in Victoria, B.C.
Margaret and Richard moved to Victoria in 1967 when he retired. They frequently hosted visiting Icelandic scholars and dignitaries and Richard continued to write. He researched the settlement of Icelandic emigrants in Victoria and the Pacific Northwest, publishing a series of articles in the Icelandic Canadian in the 1970s.
Dr. Beck was the second-longest serving President of the Icelandic National League of North America (INLNA). He represented INLNA in 1969 when Iceland observed the 25th anniversary of the republic’s founding. He was a special guest of the Icelandic government again in 1974, delivering two addresses to mark the 1,100th anniversary of the Settlement.
As Dr. Beck’s eyesight began to fail, Richard and Margaret contemplated the future of their extensive library. In a ceremony at their home on December 16, 1971, they presented a token volume of their 2,500-volume collection to the University of Victoria, with the rest to follow over several years. The collection included volumes of classical Old Icelandic literature, nineteenth-century prose and poetry, and cultural and general histories of Iceland. Mrs. Beck’s contribution included English translations of Icelandic writings and several hundred books on the history of arts, her main field of interest. In addition, Richard and Margaret Beck made provisions in their wills to establish a fund at the University of Victoria, which provides public lectures on various aspects of Icelandic language, literature, and culture.
Richard passed away in 1980, and Margaret in 1985. The Richard and Margaret Beck Trust was created, and the first public lecture was held in February 1988.
To date, more than 80 lectures on a wide variety of topics have been presented, for example:
Gisli Parson (1998) “The Arctic Expedition Diaries of V Stefansson”
Nelson Gerrard (2000) “New Iceland, from Dream to Reality”
Arni Bjornsson (2007) “Everyday Life in Traditional Iceland- marking the seasons”
There are usually three public lectures in the spring and fall terms. The Spring 2025
series will feature Torfi Tulinius, Professor of Medieval Icelandic Studies at the University of Iceland.
Dr. Tulinius will also teach a course on crime in the Sagas and modern Icelandic crime fiction. The Beck Trust makes it possible to host visiting professors to instruct in a sessional course add new volumes to the Scandinavian library, and
purchase videos and films.
In recent years the Trust has sponsored aStudent Research Travel Award of up to $6000 given to undergrad or graduate students in Humanities, Social Sciences, or Fine Arts to travel to Iceland for research or course work related to the Icelandic language and literature.
The website about the Richard and Margaret Beck Trust is currently being updated. A few lectures have been made available on YouTube and can be accessed via the Archive on UVic’s Beck lecture Series page.
Sources
Eylands, Dr. Valdimar J.. (1981). “Richard Beck: June 9th,1897–July 20th, 1980.” Icelandic Canadian. V39n4: p11–14. Retrieved from https://icecon.ca/index.php/icecon/issue/view/156 .
“Richard and Margaret’s Biographies” (n.d.) in University of Victoria/Germanic and Slavic Studies. Retrieved from https://www.uvic.ca/humanities/germanicslavic/community/home/becklectures/biographies/index.php .