Frugal Montana millionaire gives bulk of estate to deer habitat

HELENA, Mont. — LeRoy Beckman lived so frugally that he went to secondhand stores for hearing aids and heated only one room of his small Montana house.

He got around in an old panel truck, favored bib overalls regardless of the occasion and found Social Security adequate in his old age. "He looked dirt poor," said Jim McDermand of Billings.

But Beckman left an estate upward of $3 million when he died in 1997, at 88. The Great Falls man essentially left the money to deer and hunters. Now, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks is solidifying Beckman's legacy.

This month the agency's commissioners voted to accept the fourth and final gift of land bought with Beckman's money. His will requires the lands, which are contiguous, be managed for the good of wildlife and be open to hunters.

With the latest purchase, the Beckman Wildlife Management Area in central Montana grows to about 6,500 acres of grasslands, pine and fir trees, gentle slopes, coulees, the Judith River and, particularly important to Beckman, mule deer.

The area also has antelope, wild turkeys, pheasants, foxes, coyotes, raptors, songbirds and an occasional mountain lion.

Beckman's generosity is "a testament to basic decency and civic involvement," said Steve Doherty, chairman of the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission. But the involvement came posthumously. People who knew Beckman say he was a loner, trusted few people and was happiest in the wild, hunting.

"He was intelligent, but people did not give him credit for that," said Jim Luoma of Sand Coulee, who became Beckman's friend through a mutual interest in guns. He said Beckman was the son of a single mother during part of his childhood, and knew what it was like to be poor. He farmed as a young man, put money in gold stocks and got a handsome return, then invested in oil, Luoma said.

"Things just started going for him," he said. Luoma believes his friend was a savvy investor with a smart adviser.

Beckman's lone sibling, half-sister Evelyn Fish of Great Falls, remembers him as a person who loved to read, loved his dog, obeyed hunting laws meticulously and loathed hunters who did not.

McDermand's affiliation with the Montana Wildlife Federation led an aging Beckman to him, with an appeal for help in arranging his financial affairs.

"He felt he wasn't going to make it too much longer and said he had quite a bit of money that he would like to donate to mule-deer habitat," said McDermand.

"When we finished he said, 'Don't tell any ... women or lawyers about this,"' McDermand added. "He didn't trust either one."

McDermand did persuade Beckman to meet with Great Falls lawyer Kirk Evenson, after describing him as an avid sportsman, to prepare the bequest.

"Even though he was a curmudgeon, his heart was really in the right place for the wildlife and the sportsmen of Montana," McDermand said.