The Greater Millville Chamber of Commerce honored Dr. Richard Beck as the September recipient of the Chamber’s Outstanding Citizen Award.          

     Dr. Beck is somewhat of a rarity in the era of multi-physician offices, for he has always had a one-man practice. Beck opened his office in Millville in 1955 and retired in 2013.          

     He is board-certified in internal and nuclear medicine and was instrumental in establishing not only a first-class medical department at the former Millville Hospital, but also an Intensive Care Unit and a Cardiopulmonary Care Unit. He also helped initiate the cancer treatment center at Millville Hospital.    

     The 90-year-old Beck recalls when office visits were $3 and house calls were $5. He said that in the early years, about 50 percent of his work was hospital-based and 50 percent office and home-based. “Taking care of individual patients brought me the most satisfaction,” Beck said.       Several stories of his great impact on the countless lives he helped save are included in the book, “The Bloody Third,” by Eileen Bennett and Nelson Trout.      

     Beck has been held in high esteem by other members of the medical profession, and in 2001 he was named “Physician of the Year”  by South Jersey Healthcare System, now known as  Inspira.      

     “Richard Beck has demonstrated that he is a good doctor, an ethical doctor, a forward-thinking doctor” said Dr. Frank DeMaio of Vineland, founder and Chairman of the “Physician of the Year’’ committee.            Speaking at the award presentation, the late Dr. Alfred Davies, described Beck as “a superb physician, a leader and innovator.’’      

     One of the outstanding accomplishments for which Beck has been recognized was the role he played as Chairman of the Site Committee for what became Inspira Medical Center.      

     In 2006, Dr. Beck was installed in the Wood School Wall of Fame.      

     A native of Millville, Beck graduated from Millville High School in 1943, was in the U.S. Navy V-12 pre-medical program at Tufts College from 1943-45, and graduated from Temple University Medical School in 1950. He served an internship in Atlantic City Hospital from 1950-51. He then became a Captain in the Army Medical Corps at the 302nd Field Hospital in France from 1951-1953. He did his residency in internal medicine at Lutheran Hospital of Maryland from 1953-1955.      

     Beck and his late wife Shirley had four children: Stephanie Beck Tomlin, Frederick Treynor Beck, Robert Welch Beck, and the late Richard Sharpless Beck.

Dr. Richard Beck

The Amazing Dr. Beck: