Bob Beach retired in June of 2018 after serving for 31 years at Braintree Municipal Golf Course in Massachusetts, including 28 years as the facility’s PGA of America Head Professional.
But Beach didn’t say goodbye to golf or to his lifelong commitment to volunteerism. He didn’t totally bid farewell to teaching, working with golfers with special needs or making a difference in the lives of a melting pot of New Englanders.
Really, Bob Beach – the PGA of America’s na tional 2013 Patriot Award recipient – didn’t actually retire from anything in 2018. Today, at age 72, he is busier than ever, frequently volunteering with Special Olympics, raising money for the Jimmy Fund, hosting Golf For All clinics, and giving lessons to those trying to rediscover the game after a major illness or accident.
“When I retired in 2018, I was excited about stepping up my volunteering in the adaptive golf world,” recalls Beach. “I would say 70 percent of what I do now is volunteer work.”
Beach has been a proud PGA of America Member for more than 40 years, and when it comes to helping others, he never refuses. He was elected to the New England PGA Hall of Fame in 2014 – not be cause he won 10 Section Championship or qualified for the PGA Championship, but for the exemplary, selfless contributions he made. This has in cluded serving on a variety of committees, giving thousands of free golf lessons and clinics, and raising $100,000-plus to help eradicate cancer in children.
“Children and cancer – those two words should never go together,” Beach insists.
He co-founded Golf For All 15 years ago, and was recently recognized for his 50 years of volunteer work with the Jimmy Fund, the fundraising arm of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and a cornerstone in the fight against cancer in children in New England. His commitment to the Jimmy Fund took root when Beach made a trip to Fenway Park at age 12 to watch the Red Sox. Above the right field wall was a large sign that read “Remember the Jimmy Fund.”
He has never forgotten that sign – or the Jimmy Fund. Beach made a similar sign (pictured) and mounted it atop his taxi while serving as a cab driver in Boston in the 1970s. He first discovered how golf could change lives while caddying at Oakley Country Club in his hometown of Watertown, Massachusetts. Beach earned a scholarship to Norwich University, where he played on the varsity golf team – as he had at Watertown High – until he graduated from Norwich in 1975.
“When I decided to enter the golf business,” explains Beach, “my goal was to help as many people as I could through the game.”
He began donating all of his junior golf lesson revenue to the Jimmy Fund beginning in 1975 and continuing through the day he retired in 2018. Beach also gave free golf lessons to cancer patients at Jimmy Fund Field Days for more than 15 years.
“The reason I have given so much time over the years is I love helping people,” he says.
“I started my relationship with Golf For All in 2011, but it really took off when I retired in 2018. It is dedicated to giving everyone a chance at our game. We make them into golfers.”
Whether working with Veterans, physically challenged young adults or children, Beach takes tremendous pride in making a difference in people’s lives through golf. He has worked with Certified PGA Professional Judy Alvarez in learning how to teach adaptive golf, and he also took a course at Penn State University about teaching physically and/or mentally challenged people.
“It is amazing what can happen when encouragement and determination meet,” admits Beach. “It has been said that golf teaches life lessons, but to me adaptive golf is more – it is life itself.”
During his distinguished career, he has always found time to help others – even when his wife, Cathleen, was battling breast cancer, not once but twice. “Our friends and families got us through it,” says Beach, whose wife, son John and daughter Anne have always supported his volunteer efforts.
And those efforts won’t likely end anytime soon as Beach has a 10-year plan of continued volunteerism that will take him to his 82nd birthday.
“I have been a PGA Member and I have been married to my amazing wife for 40 years,” he says. “I would like to make it a 50th anniversary for both.
“I’m blessed. I love what I do.” —Roger Graves
